Abstract
To discuss paranoia in the context of these proceedings raises some obvious questions: how is paranoia related to the concept of self, and why is paranoia of interest to selftheorists? This chapter posits an intimate and, in some ways, intuitively obvious connection between self-focused attention and paranoid thinking. It is difficult to discuss symptoms of paranoia without invoking notions of self-focus and, conversely, an examination of the cognitive consequences of self-attention readily evokes elements of paranoid cognition. That is, paranoia may be conceptualized as a clear, although perhaps extreme, example of thought that is driven by self- focus.
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Fenigstein, A. (1995). Paranoia and Self-Focused Attention. In: Oosterwegel, A., Wicklund, R.A. (eds) The Self in European and North American Culture: Development and Processes. NATO ASI Series, vol 84. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0331-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0331-2_14
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