Delusions, Self-Deception, and Intentionality

This article illustrates how delusions can be understood as purposive attempts to create meaning, as constructions intended to preserve a sense of identity and social connectedness under extreme circumstances. The concepts of self-deception, purpose, and intentionality are discussed in the context of existential and moderate philosophical models in an attempt to resolve the paradoxes apparent in the application of concepts such as self-deception, intention, and purpose to phenomena widely understood as causally and pathologically determined. Excerpts from interviews with delusional psychiatric patients and the published statements of public figures are presented to illustrate how both can be understood in the context of Sartre's categories of self-deception. The implications of a model of self-deception that recognizes that the goals of delusional beliefs are on a continuum with those of everyday illusions are discussed. It is suggested that the different patterns and degrees of human irrationality and self-deception fall into a single spectrum rather than belonging to two radically different worlds.