The cognitive approach to delusions: Opportunities and perspectives

Abstract

Numerous studies in clinical psychology still have not become the basis for rigorous and testable models that explain the etiology of delusions. It is assumed that the results of studies of normal functioning of thinking within cognitive psychology could be heuristically valuable for further investigation of such thought disorders. This article focuses on a review of existing cognitive models of delusions, which are based on current understanding of the functioning of normal thinking. The cognitive approach to the study of delusions allows us to draw conclusions about the fundamental heterogeneity of pathogenic mechanisms of delusion in organic and functional psychoses, and also that the content of a delusion represents the pattern of cognitive impairment.