A Contribution to the Psychology of Persecutory Ideas and Delusions1

This paper is based on the analysis of two patients who suffered from ideas and delusions of persecution: one, named Herbert, was a youth of sixteen, and the other, whom I will call X, was twenty-four years of age. Herbert2 came for analysis because he always felt that others were observing him in the street and when he answered in school, and that he appeared ridiculous. Analysis soon shewed that his condition was more serious than it at first appeared to be. His delusions of reference were so severe that they hindered him in every activity: they made his life at boarding-school unbearable, and in the street he had to turn round every few steps to see whether he was being watched from behind. Together with these ideas were also delusions of persecution which he quite believed real and which involved extraordinary anxiety. At the first consultation he believed a camera was hidden in a picture and that he was being watched, although no one was in the room. At other times he thought a snake was coming out of the sofa or from the ceiling; also that in the cupboard, or behind the wall, or in the sofa, a man was concealed with whom I communicated by tapping, etc.

He described his condition as follows: he felt himself like a murderer watched by detectives, not yet arrested but liable to arrest as soon as he did anything suspicious. Not knowing what action might be objectionable to his persecutors, he found it better to do nothing. He also thought that his father or 'a man' followed him to the Clinic and listened at the door, etc. When he first came to analysis, Herbert was unfit to attend school and remained at home for six months. In that time he did literally nothing. His chief occupa tion, one may say almost without exaggeration, was excessive compulsive masturbation, which had continued since his sixth year.

He had no real relationship to anyone. He explained that to his