Religious delusions and schizophrenia in a patient with non-convulsive epileptic activity in the left temporal lobe

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by the presence of positive symptoms (delusions and hallucinations), negative symptoms (flattened affect, alogia, avolition, abulia, anhedonia) and cognitive symptoms (affected working memory and attention, deficits in abstract thinking)‌(1). Delusion is a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith). Religious delusions are a common symptom in schizophrenia patients, and the prevalence and the intensity of these symptoms vary depending on the society to which the patients belong to. For a religious belief to be classified as a delusion, the idea must be idiosyncratic, not representing the idea of a cult or subculture(2). The purpose of this paper is to show the difficulty of setting boundaries between religious delusions and religious belief. In the case of patients who are members of conservative religious cults, the differentiation between belief and delusion is hard to assess, this making the diagnosis, the therapeutic process and the recognition of relapse very difficult.