Module 3 – Section 4
- Delusions
Bill: Along with, and these are questions around psychosis that I’m asking, along with hallucinations, sometimes people have other experiences that they tell us. Anything else you can tell me about?
Client: I don’t understand the question.
Bill: Okay, yeah, I’m sorry, I’ll rephrase it. Sometimes people will have problems with their thoughts and the thought problem can be on “I’m hearing a voice” for instance and there is no one there. But other times things will happen with their thoughts, which seem odd or don’t make sense.
Client: People saying their thoughts don’t make sense but they do.
Bill: Okay. So they make sense to you. Okay, because you’re making sense right now, and you’re doing a great job to answer these questions and stuff. So what do they mean?
Client: Some theories.
Bill: Sorry?
Client: I have some theories.
Bill: Yeah? Can you let me know those?
Client: I don’t think you’d understand.
Bill: Okay. Come on, try. Give me a whirl. I’m an old guy but I sometimes understand a few things.
Client: Just about corporations.
Bill: Corporations? Okay. I mean I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, you don’t have to, just, unfortunately you know as a psychiatrist I have no way of really understanding what’s going on in your thoughts outside of how you look and how you act and then what you tell me about them. And so if I can find out a little bit about this it can sometimes be helpful. So in terms of corporations……
Client: They control people.
Bill: Okay. You?
Client: They’re trying to.
Bill: Okay. How so?
Client: They can watch you.
Bill: Mm-hm.
Client: Give you thoughts.
Bill: Right, okay. How does that make you feel?
Client: I don’t like being controlled.
Bill: Yeah, I bet and none of us would. So why is this happening to you do you think?
Client: They just don’t want me to do anything, to be successful.
Bill: Okay. So somehow some people, it sounds like a corporation in your mind, are doing things to you, watching you, influencing your thoughts to prevent you from being successful.
Client: Yeah.
Bill: Okay. Are they doing it to other people?
Client: Some people.
Bill: Okay. Anyone you know?
Client: I don’t know them but I know of them.
Bill: Okay. Is this a whole pile of people they’re doing this to or….?
Client: Certain people, yeah.
Bill: Okay. So why are you one of those certain people?
Client: I don’t know.
Bill: Yeah, it seems odd. I mean what have you done?
Client: It’s what I will do.
Bill: Oh, okay. So what would you do?
Client: Enlighten people.
Bill: Oh, okay. So how do you know all this stuff?
Client: I can just sense it.
Bill: Yeah, okay. How long has that been going on for?
Client: A year maybe.
Bill: So that must be a difficult thing to be going through, feeling that somebody is watching you, somebody’s trying to influence you, and they’re doing this to you and you sort of sense it’s happening. Have you responded to it in any way, did you do anything to change this?
Client: I don’t watch TV.
Bill: Okay.
Client: They can see you through the TV.
Bill: Ah!!
Client: And the computers.
Bill: Ah!! So you don’t do anything like computer stuff and watching TV anymore. So do they watch all of us?
Client: Some people they don’t care about watching.
Bill: Okay, okay. So they’re watching you? Anything else you’re doing to sort of help deal with this in your own mind?
Client: No.
Bill: Okay. Sometimes people get really upset by this and it affects them in a specific situation. Have you ever done anything to try and deal with it in a different way other than just not watching TV?
Client: Just stay in my room.
Bill: Just stay in your room, okay, so you isolate, you get away. I’m going to ask you a few other questions around this. Um because the part I, do you actually know which corporation, is it a specific one?
Client: It’s a secret organization.
Bill: Right, okay. So does it have a name?
Client: I don’t know.
Bill: Okay. So you sense they’re watching you and you don’t watch TV because you think they’re watching through the TV and that kind of stuff. Have you ever found any evidence; have you ever looked for stuff to prove this?
Client: There are cameras everywhere.
Bill: Okay, how do you know that?
Client: I can see cameras in stores.
Bill: Sure, yeah, there’s video cameras watching people in stores for, you know, theft and that kind of stuff but,
Client: They can access those.
Bill: Okay. How about who’s in the TV? How do you know there’s a camera in there?
Client: They can just be really small.
Bill: Okay. Have you ever looked?
Client: Yeah.
Bill: Yeah?
Client: I don’t know what the camera looks like.
Bill: Okay.
Client: It’s sophisticated.
Bill: Okay. So this stuff has been going on for about a year and it affects you so you, like you’re staying away from people, staying away from stuff, not watching TV. So it sounds pretty severe. So you said it does this to you through watching but also said, you said somehow it’s changing your thoughts, influencing your thoughts I think you said?
Client: They try to control me but they can’t control me.
Bill: They can’t control you, okay. How are they trying to control you?
Client: They send you subliminal messages.
Bill: Okay, like?
Client: Like to most people, like.
Bill: Like, sorry I missed that?
Client: Like they’ll send messages to people but I can see through them.
Bill: You can see through them, okay. So, um, again, how, are they sending messages to everyone?
Client: Yes.
Bill: Okay, I must admit, I’m missing the message, I don’t get a message that I’m aware of.
Client: Ads.
Bill: Ads, okay. Okay, so can you give me an example of how the subliminal message gets to you, can you remember one in particular?
Client: No.
Bill: Okay. In terms of how you feel about this sometimes people will not only think that they see a subliminal ad or something that’s out there that anyone could read. Sometimes they feel in a way it’s affecting their thoughts directly, not through an ad.
Client: Yes they can do that too.
Bill: Can you tell me what they do?
Client: It’s complicated.
Bill: Right….
Client: They must have a device to control people’s thoughts.
Bill: Okay. Why, how do you know that?
Client: Because people around me think I’m crazy.
Bill: Okay.
Client: But I just know what’s going on that’s all.
Bill: Right, okay. Are they controlling your thoughts directly?
Client: No.
Bill: Okay.
Client: Sometimes, but I can, no.
Bill: No, okay. I’m just going to ask you a few questions I’d like to; sometimes people will have the feeling like their thoughts are, can be read by somebody.
Client: They try to but they can’t.
Bill: Okay. Other times people feel that their thoughts are being broadcast over the radio, everyone can hear their thoughts.
Client: No, I can sometimes hear other people’s thoughts.
Bill: Oh, what’s that like?
Client: It’s hard to focus knowing what other people are thinking.
Bill: Yeah, I bet. I expressed some surprise at this because, you know, this is the stuff that sounds very real to you but I’m not sure that that is actually part of the reality that I would share with you in the world. My reality doesn’t include all corporations influencing me subliminally, trying to read my thoughts, me hearing other people’s thoughts. Does that surprise you that I don’t experience that?
Client: Most people don’t.
Bill: Most people don’t, okay. Because that’s, I’m wondering if that may be a bit delusional in some way, something that’s part of an illness. What do you think about that?
Client: I don’t know.
Bill: Okay.