How to Not Be Paranoid About Paranoia

When we speak in common language about a person's being paranoid, we often mean that he acts as if others are "out to get" him. Sometimes the term is even used (or misused) as a synonym for basic fear or apprehension (as I have used it in the title, just to be cute).

More technically speaking, paranoia is often viewed as "a condition characterized by ideas of reference, suspicious thinking, and high levels of anger. In the most extreme forms, paranoia appears as delusions of persecution and/or grandeur". Ideas of reference are thoughts that things somehow refer back to the holder of such ideas. A headline in a newspaper might be a message specifically for the person, or the arrangement of flowers in such and such manner could constitute a sign or message. Such ideas become more serious "delusions of reference" as they become believed with more fervor.

Paranoia is a frightening experience for the sufferer and his acquaintances alike, and generally we find the paranoid person repulsive because we can't get through to him that his fears are unjustified and that the vast majority of other persons and things in the universe frankly don't give a hoot about him enough to be conspiring against him.

While all of these negative aspects of paranoia are fairly well known, the topic has interested me based mostly on the etymology of the word "paranoia" - this to me held out hope that there was something positive to be gained from all of this.

In this article we will first look at the etymology of paranoia, and then discover one way in which this look at word roots can cast the light of optimism on the otherwise dark negativity of paranoia. This would be Salvador Dalí's "paranoiac-critical method". For those unfamiliar with the Spanish surrealist painter, I have provided a link under "Resources" below.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tin-foil hat (just kidding)

1. See the Etymology of Paranoia
   
   Words beginning in para- abound, from paramedic to paralegal to paranormal. The prefix "para-" comes from the Greek for "beyond" or "beside", while "noia" is derived from the Greek "noos", meaning "mind". So paranoia literally rendered means something like "out of one's mind" or "beyond one's mind". Hence the phrases "out of your mind", or more loosely "beside oneself with anger", or "lost my mind".
   
   We might also note that the English word "ecstasy" is derived from the Greek "ekstasis", which roughly means to stand outside (of oneself or one's mind). Ecstasy has a much better feeling about it than does paranoia, yet each word has similar early connotations - madness as double-edged sword of both terror and rapture.

2. See The Possible Gifts of Paranoia
   
   Armed with the idea that while generally speaking, paranoia is, in a word, bad, it does after all offer up a novel approach to interpreting the world, I began wondering what might be learned from it. I was specifically interested in the metaphor of being beside or outside one's mind, and also in ideas of reference. It seemed to me there was something to glean here that went beyond pathology. Novel interpretations, even if psychotic, offer their own charms and even insight. But what was I trying to put my finger on? I did not know, until . . .

3. Discover Salvador Dalí's Paranoiac-critical Method
   
   Dalí is the painter many recognize as being the guy who painted wild stuff, especially the famous "melting watches" - popular dorm room poster fare. He was from the early to mid 20th Century Surrealist movement, which emphasized the playful spontaneity of the unconscious in contrast to the rigid rationality of modern man.

4. Note a Key of the Paranoiac-Critical Method
   
   "The aspect of paranoia that Dalí was interested in and which helped inspire the method was the ability of the brain to perceive links between things which rationally are not linked". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoiac-critical_method
   
   A-ha! Sound familiar? Sound like ideas of reference?

5. Get a Further Idea of the Paranoid-Critical Method
   
   As exemplified in his works, Dalí's paranoaic-critical method consists in "double images" or multiple images that can be intepreted from a single configuration. We use an elementary version of this method ourselves whenever we "see things" in clouds.
   
   "The Paranoiac Critical method was a sensibility, or way of perceiving reality that was developed by Salvador Dalí. It was defined by Dalí himself as 'irrational knowledge' based on a 'delirium of interpretation'. More simply put, it was a process by which the artist found new and unique ways to view the world around him." http://library.humboldt.edu/art/Artists/Dali_Salvador/Dali_Paranoid_Critical_Transformation.htm

6. Conclusion
   
   "Dali believed that paranoid schizophrenics see more than the rest of us do; they have the hallucinatory power to see dual images, to spot the latent in the manifest. So he set out to formulate a method by which he could consciously induce a similar state of delirium. He called it the paranoiac-critical method, which he defined as 'a spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based upon the critical and systematic objectification of delirious associations and interpretations'." http://www.csulb.edu/~karenk/20thcwebsite/438final/ah438fin-Info.00050.html
   
   So there we have it in a nutshell, at least part of what I was looking for had been "invented" decades before I was even born. Reassuring and vindicating, but not terribly congratulatory!
   
   So instead of considering paranoia to be all bad, remember that one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century found it to be the way of the visionary.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider superstitions such as avoiding stepping on the cracks of the sidewalk or avoiding stepping on the foul line (Sparky Anderson) during a baseball game. Is this a kind of paranoia? A sort of feeling that your otherwise trivial acts (or omissions) actually affect the world that much?
• Paranoia can be a sign of potential illness, so it should still be taken seriously and a therapist consulted if symptoms persist.

Resources

• Funny Clip of Dalí on What's My Line
• Wikipedia Dalí

[kittycooks]

on 6/22/2009 Thoughtful read. Thanks for sharing!

[athome]

on 6/12/2009 Paranoia can also be induced by drug use. Good Stuff Michael. 5*

[JudyFord]

on 10/10/2008 Someone once said: "Just because they really are out to get you doesn't mean you aren't paranoid."

Enjoy your articles. Keep writing Michael!

[jimdris]

on 7/10/2008 Intriguing! Was it Einstein who said that there is a thin line between genius and insanity?