The Paranoid Pseudo-Community

Abstract

Social communication depends upon the conformity of symbolic behavior with prevailing linguistic patterns. Adults differ markedly in the degree to which they have developed and maintained the social skills underlying communication. Those with inadequate social learning in this direction are likely to prove incompetent under conditions of unusual stress. Paranoid developments represent one outcome. Out of the fragments of the social behavior of others the paranoid individual organizes a pseudo-community whose functions then seem to be focused upon him. His own reactions to this supposed community of response bring him into open conflict with the actual community and lead to his temporary or permanent isolation from its affairs.