GRANDIOSE DELUSIONS

Delusions of great power, wealth, or self-importance. The patient believes he has a private key to Fort Knox, owns fifty-seven Rolls-Royces, or was descended directly from Genghis Khan.Grandiose ideas occur in a number of psychoses. In paranoid schizophrenia they are often transient and confused. In “true” paranoia they tend to be well-organized, persistent, and unmodi- fiable. This type of delusion is also found in cases of general paresis, probably as a form of wish-fulfillment or as a reaction to failing powers. Preoccupation with grandiose, “expansive” ideas or schemes is sometimes referred to as megalomania. See DELUSION,SCHIZOPHRENIA (PARANOID TYPE), PARANOIA, GENERAL PARESIS.