Types of Delusions

1) Collapse delusion: A transient condition that occurs frequently in acute illnesses, coinciding with the cessation of febrile states; 

2) Reference delusion: The patient attributes a special meaning to objects, events or people close to him; 

3) Touch delusion: It consists in the excessive mania of touching certain objects; 

4) Nihilistic delusion: It is found in melancholic depressions, and is made up of an incoherent mass of negative ideas; 

5) Oneiric delusion: It consists in a disturbance of the conscience that leads to emotions similar to those present in the oneiric phase (the conscience of the disturbed person enters a phase such that it is unable to distinguish reality from the oneiric profile of itself); 

6) Professional or occupational delusion: It consists in recreating, on the patient’s part, the usual conditions and places of work; 

7) Residual delusion: Represented by the persistence of delusional representations at the level of thought, even after the perturbation has ceased; 

8) Interpretative delusion: The subject interprets random facts as facts linked to him, feeling that he is the main actor or feeling indicated as a party in the case; 

9) Persecution delusion: The patient believes he is the object of persecution (a situation often identified also with the term paranoia); 

10) Bizarre delusion: The patient adheres to a system of totally implausible beliefs (in the culture of reference); 

11) Control delusion: The patient is convinced that his thoughts or emotions are under the control of some external force; 

12) Insertion delusion: Similar to the previous one; the patient is convinced that some of his thoughts are imposed on him by an external force; 

13) Erotomanic delusion: The patient is convinced that a certain person (often a celebrity) is secretly in love with him; 

14) Jealousy delusion: The patient has the unfounded and obsessive belief that he is betrayed by his partner. Among delusions, it is the most frequent; 

15) Delusion of grandeur (megalomania): The patient has the conviction that he is extremely important, for example, that he has been chosen by God to carry out a mission of fundamental importance, or that he is the only holder of extraordinary knowledge or powers; 

16) Somatic delusion: The patient is convinced that his body has something unusual, such as a rare disease, some kind of parasite or an unpleasant smell; 

17) Religious delusion: The patient is convinced that religious forces (almost always belonging to his own religion) protect him from misfortune, or from a disease (real and existing); 

18) Identity delusion: He who is affected believes he is another person, often important people such as Kings, Princes or Presidents.