title: A cognitive approach to persistent delusions.
abstract: This article studies persistent delusions in schizophrenia as the cognitive aftermath of the primary delusional experience initially described by Karl Jaspers. Distinction between thinking and knowing, as well as concepts of metathinking and erroneous controlling assumptions, clarify the nature of the patient's cognitive vulnerability. Raising the patient's tolerance for ambiguity is described as the essential psychotherapeutic task.
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D003702:Delusions / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology