Thanks, SakuraLi:

My bedroom door is very flimsy, so I doubt a lock would help. And he doesn't sleep in his bedroom; he sleeps in the living room. Anyway you couldn't lock anyone in that room. It has four windows, all of which are on ground level. Open the window, tear out the screen, and step over the sill, you're outside. It would likely only make him angry.

I slept 3 hours. I'm lying here wondering if he learned anything from this incident. Will fear of going to jail prevent future aggression? He wasn't enraged or anything. He presented as being calm. To me that would indicate a chance to think twice before acting.

It's kind of weird. I was really irritated that he hadn't washed the dishes. But I wasn't yelling or lecturing. I commented on it then washed the dishes myself. He just sat there the whole time, almost like he didn't notice it was going on. But clearly he had noticed and it effected him fairly deeply. He must have sat there steaming over it and feeling angry at me. Meantime I've gone back to my facebook games and am not thinking about dishes or feeling angry.

I wonder if - on some subconscious level - he has to justify his level of anger by attributing really horrible things to me. Maybe that's the underlying source of these delusions? Or... oh, shoot! I've lost my thought. I had another idea of where these delusions might have come from.

It doesn't make sense to punch someone because they washed the dishes they'd asked you to wash. But I can see someone whose mind works like my son's does going from "I'm really mad at Mom" to "Why am I so mad? It can't be the dishes" to "I'll bet she did something really awful" to "Yes, she wants to have sex with me, and she does disgusting things like playing with dirty tampons." Hence a delusion that "explains" the level of anger he's feeling. And now he feels justified in hitting me.

I don't think he would do that consciously, but I can see that happening in his delusional world.

If that's true - and it's all speculation - then we're back to working on how to deal with powerful negative emotions. I suspect there's a well of fear and anger there but it's not being expressed appropriately or handled skillfully. Drugging him won't help with that - not long term.

Another approach would be trying to teach him not to act out in ways that violate societal norms - even when he feels completely justified. Simple rules: Don't hit people. Don't walk into the women's restroom. Period. No matter what. The problem is, I doubt that will work, on either the short or long term.