00100	.SEC THE PARANOID MODE
00200	.SS The Concept of Paranoia
00300		Like   ourselves,  the  ancient  Greeks  called  one  another
00400	paranoid. The term `paranoia' (Gr.:para=beside; nous =  mind)  was  a
00500	lay  rather than a medical term which referred to states of craziness
00600	and mental deterioration. For two thousand years  the  term  did  not
00700	appear  in the classification schemes of mental disorders. [Menninger
00800	et al.] Historians do  not  seem  curious  about  what  persons  with
00900	persecutory delusions were called all that time. (It is doubtful that
01000	there weren't any.) In the 18th century the term reappears in  German
01100	classifications  to  refer to delusional states which were considered
01200	disorders of intellect rather than emotion. [Lewis ].
01300		Little agreement about the term's usuage  was  reached  until
01400	the  present  time  when  it  has  achieved  adjectival  status as in
01500	"paranoid personality" and "paranoid state". Currently  the  term  is
01600	used  to  refer  to  the  presence of delusions (false beliefs). Some
01700	users refer to any sort of delusion as  indicative  of  paranoia  but
01800	mainly  the  delusions are persecutory. Somatic, erotic, grandeur and
01900	jealousy delusions  are  often  simply  identified  as  such  without
02000	calling them paranoid.
02100	
02200	.SS The Paranoia of Everyday Life
02300	   I shall contrast two modes of information processing activity,
02400	one termed "ordinary" and one termed "paranoid".
02500		In the ordinary mode a person  goes  about  his  business  of
02600	everyday	living in a matter-of-fact way. He deals with routine
02700	situations in his environment as  they  arise,  in  the  main  taking
02800	things  at  their face value.  Things and people behave in accordance
02900	with his belief-expectations and thus can be managed routinely.  Only
03000	a  small  amount  of  attention  need  be  devoted  to monitoring the
03100	environment , simply checking that everthing  is  as  expected.  This
03200	placid ongoing state-sequence can be interrupted by the the detection
03300	of signs of alarm or opportunity at  any  time  but  the  predominant
03400	condition  is one of a steady progression of events so ordinary as to
03500	be uneventful.
03600		In  contrast to this routine ordinariness is an arousal state
03700	of  emergency  .  The  particular  aroused  emergency  I   shall   be
03800	considering characterizes the paranoid mode of information processing
03900	characterized by a wary suspiciousness. A  person  whose  thought  is
04000	dominated  by the paranoid mode can be compared to a spy in a hostile
04100	country. To him everyone is  a  potential  enemy,  a  threat  to  his
04200	existence  who must be evaluated for malevolence or harmlessness. The
04300	secret agent is hypervigilant and fully mobilized to attack, to flee,
04400	to  stalk.  In this situation appearances are not to be taken at face
04500	value as ordinary events or background but each is  attended  to  and
04600	interpreted  to  detect malevolence. Events in the environment, which
04700	in the ordinary mode would not  be  connected  to  the  self,  become
04800	referred  to  the  self  as  potentially  menacing. The unintended is
04900	misinterpreted as intended and the undesigned is  confused  with  the
05000	designed.  Nothing is disattendible. The predominant intention of the
05100	agent is to detect malevolence from others.  In paranoid patients the
05200	over-riding  belief  in and expectation of malevolence on the part of
05300	others keeps the self in an aroused  alarm  state  ,  a  state  which
05400	occurs  only  as  an  interrupt  in  the ordinary mode of information
05500	processing.
05600	(MORE   HERE   ON  EVERDAY  PARANOIA  AS  RESOURCE  WE  ALL  HAVE  IN
05700	SYMBOL-PROCESSING REPERTOIRE) (ACCOUNTS OF PARANOID MODE IN  LITERARY
05800	STYLE--CORVO, HEMINGWAY,HOFSTADER,FOWLES, JOE LOUIS STORY)
05900	.SS Characteristics of Clinical Paranoias
06000		Observations made  by  clinicians  on  paranoid  thought  and
06100	action  have been thoroughly described in the psychiatric literature.
06200	Extensive accounts can be found in Swanson, Bohnert and Smith  (1970)
06300	and  in  Cameron  (1967).  Only  those  phenomena characteristic of a
06400	psychiatric interview will be described here.
06500		When a psychiatric interview in conducted by means of teletype (Hilf,et al,1972)
06600	the interviewer  cannot see or hear the patient. The model of paranoia to be described
06700	simulates linguistic behavior in a teletyped interview. It
06800	does not simulate the "paranoid stare" nor the intonations of 
06900	indignation observable  in vocal communication. Our simulation model is 
07000	circumscribed regarding the phenomena  it attempts to explain. It provides
07100	a "local" explanation of one symbol-processing resource rather than
07200	a grand-scale explanation of all mental processes.
07300	
07400	     
07500		The interview phenomena  the model attempts to explain consist of suspiciousness,
07600	self-reference, hypersensitivity, fearfulness ,
07700	hostility and rigidity. 
07800	.F
07900	Suspiciousness
08000	
08100	
08200	The  main  characteristic  of  the clinical paranoid mode consists of
08300	suspiciousness of others which derives from the patient's malevolence
08400	beliefs.   The  patient believes others, known and unknown, have evil
08500	intentions towards him. He is continously on the look-out  for  signs
08600	of  malevolence  which  he  often  reads from his own probings. He is
08700	convinced others try to bring about  undesirable  states  in  himself
08800	such  as  humiliation,  harassment,  injury  and  even  death.  In an
08900	interview he may report such beliefs directly or ,if he is guarded  ,
09000	they  will  only  be  hinted  at.  Disclosure may depend upon how the
09100	interviewer responds  in  the  dialogue  to  reports  of  fluctuating
09200	suspicions or of absolute convictions of malevolence.
09300	The patient may vary in his own estimate of his malevolence  beliefs.
09400	If  they  consist  of  weakly-held suspicions, he may have moments of
09500	reasoning  with  himself  in  which  he  tries  to  reject  them   as
09600	ill-founded.  But when the beliefs represent absolute convictions, he
09700	does not struggle to dismiss them.  They  become  pre-conditions  for
09800	countering  actions  against  tormentors  who  wish and try to do him
09900	evil.  He seeks affirmation of his beliefs, sympathy , and allies  in
10000	positions  of  power  such  as clinicians or lawyers who can help him
10100	take action.
10200		The conceptual content of the malevolence beliefs may involve
10300	a  specific other person or a conspiracy of others such as the Mafia,
10400	the FBI, Communists.  The patient sees himself as a victim  ,one  who
10500	suffers at the hands of others rather than as an agent who brings the
10600	suffering on himself.  Other agents subject him to and make  him  the
10700	object  of their evil intentions.  At times the conceptual content of
10800	the beliefs are not directly expressed in an interview.  The  patient
10900	may  be  so mistrustful of how their disclusure might be used against
11000	him that he cautiously feels his way through  an  interview  offering
11100	only  hints  which  the  clinician then uses to infer the presence of
11200	delusions.
11300	
11400	A  clinician faces the task of distinguishing whether the malevolence
11500	beliefs are true, false or pretense.  Some  malevolence  beliefs  may
11600	turn  out  to  be  true.  Others  are  true but have derived from the
11700	paranoid's tendency to provoke others to the point where they in fact
11800	display hostility towards him.
11900	
12000	
12100	.F
12200	Self-Reference and Hypersensitivity
12300	
12400	
12500	The patient believes many more events in the world pertain to himself
12600	in  a  negative  way  than  seems  justified to other observers.  For
12700	example, he  is  convinced  that  newspaper  headlines  are  directly
12800	personally  at him or that the statements of radio announcers contian
12900	special messages for him.  Thus  he  hypersensitively  reads  himself
13000	into situations which are not actually intended to pertain to him and
13100	his particular concerns.
13200	     The references to the self are usually interpreted as malevolent
13300	conceptually.  He may believe he is being observed and influenced by 
13400	others with evil intentions.
13500	
13600	References  to  the  self are interpreted as slurs, slights or unfair
13700	judgements.  He may feel he is being  watched,  stared  at  and  even
13800	mysteriously  influenced.   In crowds he believes he is intentionally
13900	bumped and on the highway he feels repeatedly tail-gaited.  Bombarded
14000	without  relief by this stream of wrongs , he becomes hyperirritable,
14100	querulous and guarrelsome.
14200	He  is  touchy  about  certain  topics,  flaring  up  when linguistic
14300	representations  of  particular  conceptual  domains  appear  in  the
14400	conversation.   For  example, any remarks about his age, religion, or
14500	family, or sexlife may set him  off.  Even  when  these  domains  are
14600	touched  upon  without reference to him, e.g. religion in general, he
14700	takes  it  personally.   When  a  delusional  complex   is   present,
14800	linguistic terms far removed but still connectible to the complex act
14900	as flares.  Thus a man holding beliefs that the Mafia intend to  harm
15000	him, a remark about Italy might cause him to react in a suspicious or
15100	fearful manner.
15200	
15300	Affect-States
15400	.F
15500	
15600	The major affects expressed, both verbally and nonverbally, are those
15700	of fear and anger.  The patient may be fearful of physical attack and
15800	injury even to the point of death.  He fears others wish to subjugate
15900	and control him.  His fear is justified  in  his  mind  by  the  many
16000	physical  threats  he  detects  in the conduct of others towards him.
16100	His chronic irritability becomes punctuated with outbursts of  raging
16200	tirades  and diatribes.  When he feels he is being overwhelmed he may
16300	erupt and in desperation physically attack others.
16400	The  experienced  and  expressed affects of fear and anger blend with
16500	one another in varying proportions to yield  an  unpleasant  negative
16600	affect  state made continuous by fantasy rehearsals and retellings of
16700	past wrongs. Depending on his interpretation of malevolent input, the
16800	patient  may  move  away  from others in being guarded, secretive and
16900	evasive  and  then  may  suddenly  jump  at  others  with   sarcastic
17000	accusatoriness   and  argumentativeness.   His  affect-states  become
17100	chained into loops with those others  in  his  life  space  who  take
17200	censoring  action  towards  him because of his uncommunicativeness or
17300	outbursts.
17400	
17500		As will be described, the affects of  shame  and  humiliation
17600	play a 	a  crucial role in the operations of the paranoid mode.   One
17700	of the assumptions of the theory to be presented involves a principle
17800	of escaping humiliation to prevent a further reduction in self-esteem
17900	through re-experienced humiliation.
18000	
18100	.F
18200	Rigidity
18300	
18400	Among  the chief properties of clinically observed paranoia are those
18500	phenomena which may be characterized as indicators of rigidity.   The
18600	patients  beliefs  in  his sensitive areas remain fixed, difficult to
18700	influence by evidence or persuasion.  The patient himself  makes  few
18800	verification  attempts  which  might  disconfirm his convictions.  To
18900	change a belief is to admit being  wrong.   To  forgive  others  also
19000	opens  a  crack  in the wall of righteousness.  He does not apologize
19100	nor accept apology.  He stubbornly follows rules to  the  letter  and
19200	his literal interpretations of regulations can drive others wild.  It
19300	is this quality of rigidity and fixity which makes the  treatment  of
19400	paranoia by psychological methods so difficult.
19500	
19600	.SS Theories of Paranoia
19700	
19800		While  paranoid  processes  represent  a  disorder  from  one
19900	standpoint,  the  observable  regularities  of  the disorder imply an
20000	underlying  "pathological"  order  at  another  level.   Attempts  to
20100	explain,  to  make  intelligible, the order behind the disorder, have
20200	been  offered  since  antiquity.  None  of   these   verrbally-ststed
20300	formulations  earned  the  cachet of "scientific theories" since they
20400	were neither systematic nor testable. It is difficult  to  know  what
20500	such  nontheoretical  formulations imply nor whether the implications
20600	are consistent. They do not tell us what we are  supposed  to  do  in
20700	order to replicate the experience of their authors.  If a formulation
20800	is  untestable,  the  issues  it  raises  are  unsettleable   through
20900	consensus.
21000	
21100		Theories stem from two sources, from hypotheses suggested  by
21200	the  structure  of the phenomena themselves and from modifications of
21300	previous theories (bequeathed myths of the field).   Each  generation
21400	develops  new explanatory theories by discovering new phenomena or by
21500	modifying predecessor theories.  The old theories are  unsatisfactory
21600	or  only  partially  satisfactory  because  they are found to contain
21700	anomalies or  contradictions  which  must  be  removed.     Sometimes
21800	previous theories are viewed as lacking evidential support by current
21900	standards. Theories are mainly superseded rather than disproved.  The
22000	new    versions    try    to   remove   the   contradictions,increase
22100	comprehensiveness or gain evidential support.
22200		Theories offered as scientific explanations should be (a)
22300	systematic	(i.e.  coherent  and  consistent) and (b) empirically
22400	testable. Previous psychological formulations about the paranoid mode
22500	do  not  meet these criteria and hence are deservedly bygone notions.
22600	For example, to account for paranoid thought  process  by  citing  an
22700	imbalance  of  intellect and affect or defective role-taking is to be
22800	so global and untestable as to not  merit  theory  status.   What  is
22900	needed  as  an explanation of the right type is a structure of symbol
23000	processing mechanisms, strategies, functions or procedures  which  is
23100	capable  of  producing  the  observable  regularities of the paranoid
23200	mode. Here I am using the term "mechanism" in its broadest  sense  of
23300	manner  of  working  or modus operandi. However this broad use of the
23400	term "mechanism" may suggest a mechanistic philosophy which is not my
23500	intention.  Strict  mechanism views the world as consisting basically
23600	of  particles  obeying  laws   of   motion.   Some   biologists   and
23700	psychologists  share  this  Newtonian  viewpoint in spite of the fact
23800	that physics itself for the past 50 years has been moving  away  from
23900	classical  mechanical  concepts  of  particles  in  motion.  Nowadays
24000	concepts of fields, wave functions  and  order  are  considered  more
24100	fundamental explanatory notions.
24200		In psychiatry it is still useful to view  some  things  which
24300	happen  to a man in mechanical terms. But a man is not only a passive
24400	recipient, subject to Newtons's laws, he is also an active  agent,  a
24500	language  user  who  thereby  can  monitor  himself, control himself,
24600	direct himself, comment on and criticize these  performances.  Modern
24700	psychiatric  theory should try to offer an account of man as agent as
24800	well as recipient and come to grips with  those  enigmatic  cases  in
24900	which what happens to a man can be a consequence of what he has done.
25000	Let us consider some psychological explanations for the paranoid mode
25100	beginning  in  the late 19th century.  (Historians can certainly find
25200	notions of intentions, affects and beliefs as far back as  Aristotle,
25300	who  seldom  quoted  his sources.   "Its all been said before but you
25400	have to say it again because nobody listens"(Gide)). In 1896 Freud  [
25500	]  proposed  a  formulation  of  the  right  type  which postulated a
25600	defensive strategy or mechanism to explain persecutory paranoia .  He
25700	assumed  the  believed persecution of the self by others to represent
25800	projected self-reproaches for childhood masturbation.   Today  hardly
25900	anyone  finds this explanation plausible.  While it has withered, the
26000	concepts of defense and projection have weathered the years.
26100	Around  the  turn  of  the  century,  Fliess  (according to Jones[ ])
26200	proposed in letters to Freud that paranoid thought  stemmed  from  an
26300	unconscious   homosexual   conflict.    Freud   embraced   this  idea
26400	whole-heartedly  and  in  1910  [  ]  developed  it   in   terms   of
26500	transformations  being  applied  to  the basic proposition `I (a man)
26600	love him.' He postulated this proposition to be so intolerable as not
26700	to   be   admitted   to  consciousness  and  therefore  subjected  to
26800	unconscious transformations, first into `I do not love  him,  I  hate
26900	him'  which  in  turn  was  transformed into the conscious belief `He
27000	hates me' with the accompanying conclusion `Therefore I am  justified
27100	in hating him'.
27200	In  modern  terms  this  explanation  offers  a  set  of   strategies
27300	,functions   or   procedures  which  progressively  distort  symbolic
27400	structures.   It  is  thus  the  right  type  of  explanation  for  a
27500	symbol-processing viewpoint. Great difficulty has been encountered in
27600	testing the theory since there is no agreed-on method  for  detecting
27700	the  presence of unconscious homosexual conflict.  The explanation is
27800	also inconsistent with another of Freud's ideas that everyone harbors
27900	unconscious  homosexual  conflicts. But everyone does does not become
28000	paranoid. To reconcile the inconsistency one would have to  postulate
28100	some  additional,  possibly  quantitative  factors,  to  explain  the
28200	intensity and extent of the paranoid mode in certain people.  Another
28300	difficulty  is  the  fact  that  overtly  homosexual  people  can  be
28400	paranoid, requiring in such cases a postulate of some other  type  of
28500	underlying conflict.
28600		The current state of the homosexual-conflict explanation is a
28700	doubtful  one.    But as will be discussed, it may contain a grain of
28800	truth as a  limiting  case  for  a  more  general  and  comprehensive
28900	humiliation  theory  of  the paranoid mode. Freud's later attempts at
29000	the explanation of paranoia (In Ego and Id) assumed simply that  love
29100	was  transformed into hate This notion is too vague and incomplete an
29200	articulation to qualify for a contemporary dialectics of  explanation
29300	which  reqires  a more precisely defined organization of functions to
29400	account for such a transformation. Cameron's  explanation  [1967]  of
29500	"projected hostilty" is also insufficient on these grounds.
29600	Tomkins [ ] in 196?  proposed an information-processing theory of the
29700	paranoid  posture  articulated  in  terms  of  defensive  strategies,
29800	transformations ,and maximizing-minimizing principles.  He viewed the
29900	paranoid  mode  as  an  attempt to cope with humiliation. He proposed
30000	that a person whose information  processing  is  monopolized  by  the
30100	paranoid  mode  is  in  a  permanent  state  of  vigilance, trying to
30200	maximize  the  detection  of  insult  and  to  minimize  humiliation.
30300	Regarding the paranoid, Tomkins stated:
30400	.V
30500		"The major source of distortion in his interpretation is
30600		 in his insistence on processing all information as though 
30700		 it were relevant only to the possibility of humiliation."
30800	.END
30900	Such hypotheses of Tomkin's theory,  stated  in  literary  form,  are
31000	difficult  to  test  for  their  consistency  and for their empirical
31100	correspondence.   But  as  will  be  shown,,  I   have,   with   some
31200	modifications, adopted several of them. By conjoining them with other
31300	hypotheses to form a collaboration of elements in a working model  we
31400	can enhance their testability both logically and empirically.
31500	In 1970 Swanson et al.[ ] in a  book  on  paranoia  portrayed  how  a
31600	`homeostatic'   individual   attempts   to   deal  with  `bewildering
31700	perceptions'.   They  postulated  that  a   person   in   homeostatic
31800	equilibrium  perceives  a  pronounced  inner or outer change which is
31900	inexplicable or unacceptable.  The  resultant  disequilibrium  is  so
32000	bewildering   that  in  order  to  restore  equilibrium,  the  person
32100	constructs a paranoid explanation which attributes the cause  of  the
32200	change,  not  to the self, but to an external source.  With the cause
32300	of the change identified , bewilderment is abolished and  uncertainty
32400	reduced.
32500		Elements  of  this  formulation  represent  symbol-processing
32600	strategies particularly in cases of paranoid thinkng associated  with
32700	the  `pronounced  changes'  of  organic  brain  damage or amphetamine
32800	psychosis.  These are conditions which happen to a man.  In  paranoid
32900	states,  reactions  or  personalities  where  no  pronounced physical
33000	change can be identified ,the formulation is inadequate and  must  be
33100	filled out with more specific transformations. However the 	theory
33200	does emphasize intentionalistic strategies which must play a part  in
33300	explaining human thought processes.
33400	In sum, the rival theories of paranoia here reviewed have not  gained
33500	widespread  acceptance because of various weaknesses and limitations.
33600	No reigning and unified theory of paranoia is widely accepted  today.
33700	In  such a pre-consensus state the field is wide open for contenders.
33800	I shall  propose  a  simulation  model  as  a  candidate  explanation
33900	intended  to  be  more  explicit, systematic, consistent and testable
34000	than the theories described above. The model combines  hypotheses  of
34100	these  previous  contributions with hypotheses and assumptions of our
34200	own into a coherent unified explanatory system. Let us next  consider
34300	the nature of such an explanatory system.