Delusion as an attractive illusion

The Consensus Delusion (Part #11)

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A delusion is held to be a belief that, though false, has been surrendered to and accepted by the whole mind as a truth -- typically held with vehemence. An illusion, is however an impression that, though false, is entertained provisionally on the recommendation of the senses or the imagination, but awaits full acceptance and may not influence action. The two may, however, be readily confused in practice, especially when held to have pathological implications. The question is then with respect to what framework the belief is judged to be pathological.

Delusions are conventionally distinguished in terms of four types:

• Bizarre delusion: one that is very strange and completely implausible; an example of a bizarre delusion would be that aliens have removed the affected person's brain.
• Non-bizarre delusion: one that, though false, is at least possible, e.g., the affected person mistakenly believes that he is under constant police surveillance.
• Mood-congruent delusion: one having content consistent with either a depressive or manic state, e.g., a depressed person believes that news anchors on television highly disapprove of him, or a person in a manic state might believe he is a powerful deity.
• Mood-neutral delusion: one that does not relate to the sufferer's emotional state; for example, a belief that an extra limb is growing out of the back of one's head is neutral to either depression or mania.

These may variously manifest according to consistent themes, including: delusion of control, nihilistic delusion, delusional jealousy, delusion of guilt or sin, delusion of mind being read, delusion of reference, erotomania, religious delusion, somatic delusion, delusion of grandeur, and persecutory delusion. Experientially a delusion may then be understood as a powerful attractor -- even a strange attractor, as with the experience of other values (Human Values as Strange Attractors, 1993).

Illusion is more conventionally associated with misperception by the senses, most notably that of vision. Thus Scientific American offered a set of 169 Best Illusions--A Sampling (10 May 2010). There is a natural fascination with illusion -- traditionally cultivated by magicians.

Illusion and delusion tend to be confused when the senses are used metaphorically, as with the widespread use of the vision metaphor in "envisaging" the future -- the need for politicians to be "in touch", or to "hear" the voice of the people (Metaphor and the Language of Futures, 1992). It is the strategies elaborated on the basis of an attractive "vision" -- even utopian -- by which people may be effectively seduced.

Curiously it is the technical innovation of multi-media which has made evident the heightened attraction of "poly-sensual" information -- now increasingly valued in the marketing of strategic proposals. Multi-media in fact enhances the attraction of "delusional immersion" as the ultimate distractor. Less evident is any recognition of the cognitive implication of mixing the metaphoric languages of the senses -- a polysensorial extension of the argument of Magoroh Maruyama (2004) regarding the necessity of "poly-ocular" thinking as a means of transcending "subunderstanding", as separately discussed (Strategic Challenge of Polysensorial Knowledge: bringing the "elephant" into "focus", 2008). How might "enlightenment" be imagined without the bias in favour of the vision metaphor -- or of the alternative offered by other senses? Sound? Smell? Touch?

The cognitive and metaphorical potentials of synaesthesia, as a means of transcending such delusion, have yet to be articulated. Is it in such terms that "consensual" will acquire new significance as a basis for new forms of "consensus"? What might then be the future significance of "grokking", as speculatively explored (Authentic Grokking: Emergence of Homo conjugens, 2003)?

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