Do we all have an element of paranoia?

ABSTRACT

The word paranoia and its usage have transgressed beyond the boundary of psychiatry. It has assumed the form of asocial cognition. Psychiatric researchers have looked into it either in the form of an attenuated psychopathology or adistinctive cognitive style in individual's socio-cultural-political-economic background. Studies have been conductedto measure paranoia in non-clinical population by different scales. Psychoanalytic theories have been put forwardregarding paranoia emerging from childhood developmental process. Social theorists have suggested that paranoidsmight have real enemies. Aaron Beck in his cognitive-evolutionary model speculated that paranoia conferred someadaptive advantage towards mankind's evolution. At the end, nobody considered paranoia as healthy and cognitivebehaviour therapists provided some remedial measures.