paranoia hallucinatoria

   The term paranoia hallucinatoria comes from the Greek noun paranoia (foolishness, madness) and the Latin verb alucinari (to wander mentally, to be absent-minded). It is used to denote a paranoid delusional state which arises as a consequence of pre-existing hallucinations. According to the German hallucinations researcher Edmund Parish (1861-1916), paranoia hallucinatoria is typically preceded by a * verbal hallucination. As Parish wrote in 1897, "The sufferer hears taunting or insulting voices calling after him in the street, and making injurious insinuations about him, or sometimes unseen speakers incidentally let fall words which confirm his forebodings. In the later stages of the disease also auditory hallucinations predominate, and may be extremely vivid and distinct, although they also occur as soundless inner voices." The Russian psychiatrist Victor Kandinsky (1849-1889), who had firsthand experience at once as a psychiatrist and a psychiatric patient, diagnosed himself with paranoia hallucinatoria. In the classic psychiatric literature, paranoia hallucinatoria is designated by a variety of terms, such as paranoia hallucinato-ria acuta (Georg Theodor Ziehen (1862-1950)), amentia (Theodor Meynert (1833-1898)), hallucinatory insanity (Carl Fürster (1848-1906)), acute hallucinatory insanity (Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902)), and *hallucinosis (Carl Wernicke (1848-1905)).

   References

   Lerner, V., Witztum, E. (2003). Victor Kandinsky, MD: Psychiatrist, researcher and patient. History of Psychiatry, 14, 103-111.

   Parish, E. (1897). Hallucinations and illusions. A study ofthe fallacies ofperception. London: Walter Scott.