"In paranoid thinking a person believes he has detected a conspiracy--that is,

a hidden (and malevolent) pattern in the behavior of friends, associates or governments--where in fact no such pattern exists. If there is such a

conspiracy, the subject may be profoundly anxious, but his thinking is not necessarily paranoid. A famous case involves James Forrestal, the first U.S. Secretary of of Defense. At the end of World War II, Forrestal was convinced that Israeli secret agents were following him everywhere. His physicians, equally convinced of his idee fixe, diagnosed him as paranoid and confined him to an upper storey of Walter Reed Army Hospital, from which he plunged to his death , partly because of inadequate supervision by hospital personnel, overly deferential to to one of his exalted rank.

Later it was discovered that Forrestal was indeed being followed by Israeli agents who were worried that he might reach a secret understanding with representatives of Arab nations. Forrestal had other problems, but having his valid perception labeled paranoid did not help his condition.



In times of rapid social change there are bound to be conspiracies, both by those in favor of change and by those defending the status quo, the latter more than the former in recent American political history. Detecting conspiracies when there are no conspiracies is a symptom of paranoia; detecting them when they exist is a sign of mental health.