Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Paranoia |
ParanoiaNoun1. A psychological disorder characterized by delusions of persecution or grandeur. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "paranoia" was first used: 1891 (earlier from "paranoea" in 1811). (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Health | A psychotic disorder marked by persistent delusions of persecution or delusional jealousy and behaviour like that of the paranoid personality, such as suspiciousness, mistrust, and combativeness. It differs from paranoid schizophrenia, in which hallucinations or formal thought disorder are present, in that the delusions are logically consistent and that there are no other psychotic features. The designation in DSM III-R is delusional (paranoid) disorders, with five types : persecutory, jealous, erotomanic, somatic, and grandiose. (references) |
Medicine | . . could be translated as thinking beside oneself. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Paranoia is excessive concern about a one's own well being, sometimes suggesting the person holds persecutory beliefs concerning a threat to themselves or their property.
In the original Greek παράνοια (paranoia) means self-referential, and it is this meaning which has been adopted in psychiatry, especially European psychiatry, in reference to a delusional belief (see delusions). Specifically, the term paranoia is used to denote a delusional belief that is self-referential. The delusional belief may not necessarily be persecutory. For example, a person who has a delusional belief that they are an important figure (such as being Jesus, Napoleon, or the Dalai Lama) may be diagnosed as having a paranoid belief or, if they hold this belief in the context of schizophrenia, as having paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoia and delusions in general are considered an important (if not the most important) diagnostic feature of psychosis.
The term paranoia was previously used in psychiatry used to describe what is now called delusional disorder. That is, a mental illness that involves one or more non-bizarre delusions with the absence of any other psychopathology (signs or symptoms of mental illness).
Common paranoid delusions may include the belief that the person is being followed, poisoned or loved at a distance (often by a media figure or important person, a delusion known as erotomania or De Clerambault syndrome). Other common paranoid delusions include the belief that the person has an imaginary disease or parasitic infection (delusional parasitosis), that the person is on a special quest or has been chosen by God, that the person has had thoughts inserted or removed from conscious thought or that the person's actions are being controlled by an external force (see mind control).
Paranoia is often associated with psychotic illnesses, particularly schizophrenia.
Many despotic rulers (for example Stalin) allegedly suffered from paranoia. This presents an interesting question because in Stalin's case, it is quite likely that many people really were out to get him (some theories state he was finally poisoned). Might it be that with enough enemies, it is impossible to be clinically paranoid? This begs interesting philosophical questions about the criteria by which we can diagnose a belief as paranoid or delusional.
See also: delusion, delusional disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, Paranoia (game)
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Paranoia is a humorous role playing game set in a dystopian future. The tone of the game is light and tongue-in-cheek rather than dark and heavy. The game is set in Alpha Complex, a futuristic underground city controlled by The Computer, which employs teams of secret agents called "Troubleshooters" to root out traitors. Traitorous activities includes Communism, being a mutant, and being a member of a secret society. The players commonly portray Troubleshooters, but later game supplements offered other roles for player characters.
Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers
In fact, all members of Alpha Complex's society are mutants who belong to secret societies. Therefore, Troubleshooter missions invariably turn into a constant comedy of errors as everyone on the team seeks to double-cross the others while keeping their own secrets.
Three editions of Paranoia exist. The first editon, (ISBN-1869893), by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg, was published in 1986 by West End Games. The second edition, by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, Eric Goldberg, Ken Rolston, and Paul Murphy, was published in 1989 by West End Games. A third edition, called "Fifth Edition", was published in 1995 by West End Games.
Related publications are,
Further Reading
Paranoia (game)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Paranoia."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Insanity | Insanity, lunacy; madness; Adjective: mania, rabies, furor, mental alienation, aberration; paranoia, schizophrenia; dementation, dementia, demency; phrenitis, phrensy, frenzy, raving, incoherence, wandering, delirium, calenture of the brain; delusion, hallucination; lycanthropy; brain storm. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Paranoia |
| English words defined with "paranoia": delusions of grandeur, delusions of persecution ♦ paranoiac, paranoid. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "paranoia": Depression, Involutional ♦ Halloween Documents. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Paranoia" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Czech (paranoia), Danish (paranoia), Dutch (paranoia), German (paranoia), Hungarian (paranoea, paranoia, paranoiac psychosis, paranoid psychosis), Italian (paranoia), Romanian (paranoia), Spanish (paranoia), Swedish (paranoia). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Oh, no. That's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe has that. (The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy; writing credit: Douglas Adams; John Lloyd) It said he suffers from, um, oh! acute paranoia. (Holes; writing credit: Louis Sachar) To be a psychiatrist in this country (the Soviet Union) is to be an expert on paranoia, whether you meant to be or not. (Citizen X; writing credit: Robert Cullen; Chris Gerolmo) Paranoia is not a contagious condition, it's a way of life. (First Wave; writing credit: Tunde Babalola) | |
Lyrics | Paranoia strikes deep ("For What It's Worth"; performing artist: Buffalo Springfield) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Paranoia (2000) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | High doses of cocaine and/or prolonged use can trigger paranoia. (references) | |
The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts. (references) | ||
Side effects may include paranoia, hallucinations, confusion, dyskinesias, nightmares, nausea, and vomiting. (references) | ||
Economic History | Panama | By the fall of 1989, the regime was barely clinging to power, and the regime's paranoia made daily existence unsafe for U.S. forces and other U.S. citizens. (references) |
Guinea | The regime's repression drove more than a million Guineans into exile, and Touré's paranoia ruined relations with foreign nations, including neighboring African states, increasing Guinea's isolation and further devastating its economy. (references) | |
Burma | Given the SPDC's extreme paranoia about the free flow of information, it is unlikely that there will be any major liberalization of the telecommunications sector under this regime. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Paranoia" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.56% of the time. "Paranoia" is used about 208 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.56% | 205 | 21,272 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.44% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 208 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "paranoia": paranoia-ravaged. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
paranoia | 399 |
paranoia schizophrenia | 22 |
disorder paranoia | 19 |
paranoia symptom | 12 |
lyrics paranoia | 10 |
paranoia rpg | 8 |
cd paranoia | 7 |
cause paranoia | 7 |
magazine paranoia | 7 |
scarpa paranoia | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "paranoia"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | paranojë. (various references) | |
Arabic | جنون العظمة (megalomania), جنون الشك والاضطهاد. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | параноя. (various references) | |
Chinese | 偏执狂 (Paranoiac). (various references) | |
Czech | paranoia. (various references) | |
Danish | paranoia (delusion of persecution, mania of persecution). (various references) | |
Dutch | paranoia. (various references) | |
Esperanto | paranojo. (various references) | |
French | paranoïa. (various references) | |
German | Paranoia. (various references) | |
Greek | παράνοια (insanity). (various references) | |
Hungarian | paranoia (paranoea, paranoiac psychosis, paranoid psychosis). (various references) | |
Indonesian | sakit gila. (various references) | |
Italian | paranoia. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 妄想症 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | パラノイア , もうそうしょう, へ"しゅうびょう. (various references) | |
Korean | 망상광. (various references) | |
Manx | tranlaase-aggle. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aranoiapay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | paranóia (paranormal). (various references) | |
Romanian | paranoia. (various references) | |
Russian | паранойя. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | parnoja. (various references) | |
Spanish | paranoia. (various references) | |
Swedish | paranoia. (various references) | |
Turkish | paranoya, aşırı kuşkuculuk. (various references) | |
Ukranian | параноя. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | chứng hoang tưởng bộ phận (paranoea). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | paranoia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "paranoia": paranoiac, paranoiacs, paranoias. (additional references) | |
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"Paranoia" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Baranova, Paganelii, Palanji, paradoi, Paramoa, parania, paranioa, parannoya, paranoai, paranoea, paranoi, paranoias, paranoic, paranoie, paranois, paranola, paranomia, paranora, paranotal, Pararnali, Parayno, Parenzo, paronoia, peruano, Petraroia, Pironio, Portanova. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-i-n-o-p-r" | |
-2 letters: anopia, parian, pirana. | |
-3 letters: apian, apron, naira, noria, orpin, piano, prion. | |
-4 letters: airn, anoa, aria, inro, iron, naoi, nipa, noir, nori, pain, pair, para, pian, pina, pion, pirn, porn, prao, proa, raia, rain, rani, roan. | |
-5 letters: ain, air, ana, ani, ion, nap, nip, nor, oar, ora, pan, par, pia, pin, poi, pro, ran, rap, ria, rin, rip. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-a-i-n-o-p-r" | |
+1 letter: paranoiac, paranoias. | |
+2 letters: paranoiacs, paranoidal. | |
+3 letters: malapropian, paronomasia. | |
+4 letters: apparitional, aspirational, paralyzation, paranoically, paronomasias, pyromaniacal. | |
+5 letters: anaphorically, anaphrodisiac, megasporangia, panoramically, paralyzations, paranormality, postlapsarian, preadaptation, supranational, suprarational. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 61 72 61 6E 6F 69 61 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .- .-. .- -. --- .. .- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01100001 01110010 01100001 01101110 01101111 01101001 01100001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P a r a n o i a |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 0061 0072 0061 006E 006F 0069 0061 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)5067846780817567 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Anagrams | 13. Orthography 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
