[The history and psychopathology of paranoia]

The concept of paranoia refers to a main problem of general psychopathology: Paranoia represents the prototype of a pure delusional disorder. The text reviews the descriptive psychopathological and nosological aspects of paranoia which is orientated towards the well-known historical studies by Kraepelin, Gaupp, Kretschmer and Jaspers. The systematic character of the delusional ideas and a specific emotional-affective state connected with a typical (sensitive-vulnerable) personality constitute the "classical" concept of paranoia. Furthermore, the characteristics of paranoia experience and its distinction from delusion during schizophrenic disorders are discussed. The possibility of communication with a delusional person in his autistic world calls for our understanding of the inner and existential meaning of delusion. Therefore the research into the problem of paranoia requires consideration of phenomenological, philosophical and anthropological points of view.