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What Is Janet's Primary Delusion

Decent Essays

CASE STUDY FOR Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders
1. What is the precipitating stressor event that probably triggered the onset of Janet's schizophrenic episode? What other factors may have contributed? Stress is the main trigger for individuals with schizophrenia. The stressor can be traumatic, such as the loss of a parent or a job or divorce. Less stressful events such as moving or a date night can also initiate a psychotic episode. In Janet’s case, leaving home for the first time, moving into a dormitory and starting college combined to trigger the onset of her schizophrenic episode.
During Janet’s childhood, she had exhibited several episodes of eccentric behavior but was supported and enabled by her parents. Now without …show more content…

Identify Janet's primary delusion. How can we understand this as a way that Janet is trying to "make sense" of her collapsing world? How do her hallucinations fit together with her delusion?
Janet’s alternative reality involved her preoccupation with a married professor, Dr. M. She believed he was in love with her and heard voices telling her she had to be with him to prevent the world from destruction. Her preoccupation with Dr. M. and all the fantasies it involved was her primary delusion. Due to her disorganized thinking, she was unable to cope with her real life situation; she was alone, overwhelmed with fears and anxiety and without the ability to process these new changes in her life. Trying to grasp the reasons for her fears led Janet to develop the delusions of persecution and world …show more content…

M.’s wife, the college dean, hospital staff and even her roommate were dangerous threats to her mission of saving the world. Janet’s struggle to “save the world” can equate to her hope of being saved herself. These persecutory delusions helped Janet endure her extreme anxiety. Hallucinations, which include hearing voices and seeing things that are not real, are a positive symptom of schizophrenia. Janet experienced auditory hallucinations when she felt thwarted in her delusion that she and Dr. M. must save the world. She was unable to rescue herself from the stress that brought about the delusion formation; this stress and anxiety left her vulnerable to hallucinations. In addition, her paranoia led her to accept the hallucinations as proof of the threats against her plan for world salvation. The command hallucinations Janet heard placed her in danger of performing violent behavior that could harm herself or

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