[The pathogenesis of persecutory delusions in the light of the attribution theory]

Among the present pathogenetic hypotheses of delusions the cognitive model based on the attribution theory presents interesting assumptions. The attribution theory describes the ways in which we explain causes of events and human behaviour from the point of view of common sense psychology, as well as biases found in explaining everyday events, known as attribution errors. One of them is self-serving bias, which protects self-esteem and distorts attribution processes. Kaney, Bentall and co-workers revealed the defensive attributional style in the patients with persecutory delusions and after empirical research they suggested that delusions are the extreme forms of self-serving bias. After presenting the studies of Kaney-Bentall the authors of the article express their doubts regarding attributional hypothesis of persecutory delusions.