delirium of judgment

   The German term Urtheilsdelirien (i.e. delirium of judgment) was introduced in or shortly before 1885 by the Russian psychiatrist Victor Kandinsky (1849-1889) to denote a type of illusion in which perceptual stimuli or objects are misinterpreted rather than misperceived. Some examples of delirium of judgment are cases in which pebbles are held for gems, or pieces of simple metal for silver or gold. The notion of delirium of judgment is conceptually compatible with the notion of "ganglionic illusion as defined by the French alienist Jean-Etienne Dominique Esquirol (1772-1840). Although illusions are generally conceptualized as perceptual phenomena, the term delirium of judgment would seem to refer to a delusional rather than an illusory phenomenon. As Kandinsky points out, this is a common, but not a proper usage of the term illusion, the origin of which can be traced back to Esquirol. Kandinsky uses the notion of delirium of judgment in opposition to the notions of "sensory misperception (Sinnestäuschung)and "delirium of the senses (Sinnesdelirien).

   References

   Kandinsky, V. (1885). Kritische und klinische Betrachtungen im Gebiete der Sinnestäuschungen. Erste und zweite Studie. Berlin: Verlag von Friedländer und Sohn.