A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “delusions”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott investigates AI psychosis through historical analogies and a reader survey, finding it affects roughly 1 in 10,000 to 100,000 people yearly, with most cases involving pre-existing risk factors.
Scott analyzes a case of apparent psychiatric misdiagnosis, explaining the complexities and challenges faced by psychiatrists in evaluating patients' claims.
Scott examines neurological theories explaining delusions like Capgras syndrome through Bayesian reasoning, arguing that damage to the right prefrontal cortex causes patients to ignore priors and base their beliefs solely on explanatory adequacy.
Scott recounts the case of Simon Browne, an 18th-century preacher who claimed to have lost his soul and consciousness after killing a robber in self-defense, yet continued to write and reason brilliantly, potentially representing a real-world philosophical zombie.