Self-Structure in Persecutory Delusions.
Behavior therapy January 1, 2023 Lyn Ellett, Jessica Kingston, Eryna Tarant et al.
People with persecutory delusions organize their self-concept differently than healthy individuals, holding more negative self-attributes and keeping positive and negative traits in separate mental compartments. In Study 1, 27 individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses and current persecutory delusions showed greater compartmentalization, a higher proportion of negative attributes, and more importance assigned to negative self-aspects compared with 47 healthy controls. In Study 2, the same clinical group completed a card-sorting task before and after 12 weeks of mindfulness-based therapy or treatment-as-usual. Large effect sizes indicated reductions in compartmentalization and proportion of negative attributes following mindfulness therapy, though no link emerged between delusion severity and self-structure. The findings suggest self-structure can change with psychological therapy.