CONSPIRATORIAL THINKING: Can it be a mild form of SCHIZOPHRENIA?
Nowadays, we’re hearing a lot about Conspiracy Theories. They’re about many things such as the corona vaccines; private and governmental research-laboratories; Bill Gates’ evil intents towards mind-control; the 2020 Presidential Election; voter fraud; the Deep State; racist cabals in the police-force and military… on and on.
Conspiratorial Thinking seems more common than ever.
We’re also living in very stressful times, and this is no doubt fueling extra anxiety and paranoia within the population.
Internet makes the spread of these Conspiracy Theories much easier and faster.
WE MAY ASK: what could be the underlying cause of Conspiratorial Thinking in general in a population? Can we consider any biological reasons?
BACKGROUND
About 1% of a population in any country, including the USA, suffers from SCHIZOPHRENIA. Most common sub-type of this serious mental-illness is PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA , meaning that the sufferers feel (imagine, hallucinate about) external threats that are not really there.
The exact causes of this mental-illness are not currently know, but the ongoing research points to genetic and environmental factors, both.
There is no cure but certain drugs and counseling-based therapies help.
MY PROPOSAL:
Here, I’d like to propose that a greater than 1% of any population have a mild form of paranoid schizophrenia. It’s not an all-or-nothing mental-illness. Most likely, almost everyone has a certain propensity for it. It could be a matter of degree.
Within that otherwise “healthy” spectrum/segment of the population, the 99%, it manifests itself more strongly under certain conditions, STRESS being the most likely inducer.
In “healthy” cases, an extremely mild paranoia (a better word is CAUTION, perhaps) provides human-beings the useful and needed survival-advantage in Nature. Therefore, it was selected during Evolution.
IN CONCLUSION
Manifesting paranoia (schizophrenia related) can be the underlying cause of CONSPIRATORIAL THINKING. That is, seeing and imagining external threats when there is really none, in the areas imagined.
This is a possibility definitely worth investigating further, considering the challenging times ahead in America and the rest of the World.
Thank you for your time and attention
Celik Kayalar, PhD.
Celik Kayalar 