Delusion Formation During the Activation of Chronic Schizophrenic Patients

It is part of psychiatric lore that on occasion there develop marked paranoid delusions during quite varied therapeutic attempts at rehabilitation of chronic schizophrenic patients. However, this aspect of psychiatric lore is apparently not well documented in the literature. A search of the psychological abstracts revealed no article specifically devoted to this subject. (One related reference discussed a tendency toward increased hallucinations during activation of chronic schizophrenics.³) One of the case histories presented by Freeman, Cameron, and McGhie,² describes the onset of delusions during work with a chronic schizophrenic. This is ascribed by them to some adverse interaction with a relative. Azima and Wittkower¹ have also described a chronic case in which delusions developed during active attempts at rehabilitation. Both these instances occurred in patients subjected to intensive therapeutic endeavors with interpretive techniques. We have had the opportunity to follow the development of organized