Are Delusions Dangerous?

Or Merely Dalliances?

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

When we’re children, we all engage in make-believe. It’s encouraged, nourished. We are supposed to use our imaginations, make our own fun. The fantastical is delightful.

When we are adults, though, making things up, creating our own realities, is, well…not “right.”

Right?

There is that memorable scene from the classic film Miracle on 34th Street where Kris Kringle so adeptly reminds a young Natalie Wood that imagination is the very best “Nation” in which to live, and they pretend to be the animals in the zoo. She is at first skeptical, but soon learns the joy of play, taught by an adult, an enjoyable turn of roles.

That’s a film, though. We live here in reality. Here, to have a different sense of reality can get us in real trouble.

Recalling events as they didn’t happen, or recalling events that did not happen is troublesome.

Doing so on a regular basis is what some mental health experts even call delusional.

According to the NCBI, of the US National Library of Medicine, a delusion is “a belief that is clearly false and that is an abnormality in the affected person’s content of thought. The false belief is not accounted for by the person’s cultural or religious background or his or her level of…