Primary delusions

The individual has an uneasy awareness that everything has changed in significance, become disordered. The atmosphere is sinister, there is a sense of frightening uncertainty and an apprehension of disintegration. objects and events have vague significance and new meaning (delusional perception). A delusional memory may give significance to a past event which is relevant to the present perception. There may be awareness of cataclysmic events (delusional awareness). It is not so much the cognitive processes which are impaired. What appears to happen is a shift in cognitive structures. Primary delusion can thus be said to be caused by a shift in inter-schematic organization. The shift results in false postulates as part of an attempt to fit in the new meanings which have been experienced. One may be said to build up schema or constructs which structure one's world and enable prediction of the course of events. Where one is subjected to inconsistencies which require continual modification of the relations between the schema or constructs, the interlinking becomes weaker and inconsistent. There is failure in prediction and subsequent breakdown in response to the environment.