Delusional thinking: a thought or affective disorder? A paradigm for working through delusional thinking in psychotherapy.

A paradigm for treating delusional beliefs is offered here. Certain delusional beliefs are analyzed as the result of an underlying affective disorder that masquerades as a thought problem. Through clinical illustration the author demonstrates that the psychotherapist can access the very heart of a delusion and restructure it by focusing on the affective origins of the delusion.