Paranoia Critique

Paranoia is not ‘paranoia’.

Neither is it a perception of how things ‘really are‘.

It is the awareness of hidden aspects of reality which are generally ‘unacceptable’, or perhaps functionally ‘inappropriate’ to a certain situation.

The tension and friction between the unacceptable nature of these aspects and the awareness of their existence magnifies their power beyond that which they ordinarily hold.

Without expression and discharge, it is possible for this power to become so magnified as to be in danger of obliterating all other aspects of reality.

Paradoxically, for the paranoid the unacceptable becomes the only thing accepted.

A person who falls into such a situation thus becomes ‘insane’; a scapegoat.

In their mono-vision, they carry the burden of the unacceptable aspects of reality.

Others can easily then persuade themselves that such a person ‘contains’ all these aspects within themselves, and that the rejection or incarceration of such a person will utterly remove these aspects from reality…

As if no man except him over there is an island.

For the individual: ignoring and repressing ‘paranoia’.

For society: ignoring and incarcerating ‘paranoids’.

These thoughts are—paranoid.