[ExI] How to avoid becoming a victim of street crime

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/9/2 Post Futurist <p0stfuturist at yahoo.com>:
> "It's also very hard to pin down without resorting to a
> normative definition: paranoid is what people think is paranoid."
>
> That's it, Stathis:
> 'paranoia', 'paranoid' can be, for the layman, lingo for being cautious.
> In a bad neighborhood being overly, or even extremely suspicious (i.e.
> paranoid) can be an asset to the quality of one's life, not a liability. If
> a slum dweller is paranoid and on guard for every real or imagined threat,
> then he might do better for himself than if he were on guard only most of
> the time.
> Of course you know the quote from the sitcom character, "there is no such
> thing as paranoia, being paranoid is just good thinking", was a joke, right?

Yes, I know it was a joke. But true paranoia does *not* help you, even
if you live in a situation where you are actually at risk. I've had
criminals bring in one of their own explaining, "He's paranoid, you
have to help him" - while admitting that there probably are people who
would try to kill him and the police probably do monitor him.
Similarly with religious delusions: sometimes as far as I can tell the
beliefs of the patient are no more bizarre than other religious
beliefs, but their community recognises that there is something wrong
with them.

A delusion is defined in psychiatry as a fixed, false belief which is
not in keeping with the person's culture or community.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou