Ideas of reference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideas_of_reference
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Delusions of reference involve a person having a belief or perception that irrelevant, unrelated or innocuous things in the world are referring to them directly or have special personal significance. Ideas of reference should be distinguished from delusions of reference and they are an exaggerated form of self consciousness, usually driven by social anxiety.

The two are clearly distinguished in psychological literature. People suffering from ideas of reference experience intrusive thoughts of this nature, but crucially, they realize that these ideas are not real. Those suffering from delusions of reference believe that these ideas are true.

In their strongest form, they are considered to be a sign of mental illness and form part of a delusional, paranoid or psychotic illness (such as schizophrenia or delusional disorder).

They may include experiences such as:

* feeling that people on television or radio are talking about, or talking directly to them
* believing that headlines or stories in newspapers are written especially for them
* having the experience that people (often strangers) drop hints or say things about them behind their back
* believing that events (even world events) have been deliberately contrived for them, or have special personal significance
* seeing objects or events as being deliberately set up to convey a special or particular meaning

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Narcissism involves, among other things, an inflated sense of importance, uniqueness, and abilities. For example, a narcissist might take credit for being the "subject" of a newspaper article when in reality they may have only provided a small quote or sent in a comment. Or they may attribute the motives to someone's behavior as being related to them primarily, as in, "You're jealous of me, and that's why you have to work so hard at that, so you can beat me." When in actuality, it may be that the other individual has a strong interest in whatever that action that exists completely outside the narcissist. Perhaps the person never even thinks about the narcissist's actions and purses the activity for their own reasons.

So ideas of reference are sort of an off-base thought reaction to something sort of random and/or mundane. These thoughts can develop out of increased self-consciousness, anxiety, stress, etc., If they are delusions of reference, where the individual actually believes it to be true, this could be a sign of psychotic thinking. And narcissist's beliefs that things are about them or relate to them stem from the narcissist's need for self-love and therefore exaggerating the importance of or relation to, etc. of events.

hope this helps,

gg