Understanding Paranoia: A Guide for Professionals, Families, and Sufferers

In this insightful book, the author vividly takes the reader inside the minds of people who are paranoid: experiencing delusions of persecution ranging from thinking others are out to get them to falsely believing they have physical illness. Kantor also explains to us other facets of the Paranoid Personality, including suspiciousness, hypersensitivity, extreme vigilance, simmering anger, and a tendency to blame others for and absolve oneself of almost everything. How does such paranoia affect one’s life? Whether one is a paranoiac wanting to recover from the emotional disorder, or a person looking for the best way to deal with a paranoid husband, wife, friend, boss, or acquaintance, this book offers understanding and guidance. As Kantor explains, the term paranoid should not be used as a hurtful epithet. Paranoid individuals are no more or less evil than persons with any other emotional disorder, or for that matter, persons with a physical disorder. Paranoia is a disorder of the mind, not a flaw of character, says Kantor.

Paranoid individuals are not invariably social misfits. They are found in all walks of life and in all professions, suffering from this disorder that distorts behavior and affects those with whom they come in contact, often in devastating ways. Politicians who write attack ads, spouses who beat or kill their partners, people in road or supermarket rage incidents are all among the possibly paranoid, as are students who perpetrate violence at their schools and fired employees who wreak violence at their former workplaces. Recognizing and treating paranoid behaviors can prevent or reduce antisocial activity and violence against individuals and society.

Martin Kantor, MD is retired Staff Psychiatrist for the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in East Orange, New Jersey. Kantor has written thirteen other books for Praeger including Uncle Sam’s Shame (2008), Lifting the Weight (2007), The Psychopathy of Everyday Life (2006), and Understanding Paranoia (2004).