Francis Spira and the 'Delusion of Despair'

12/05/18 • 13 min

Clinical psychologist Professor Daniel Freeman continues his exploration of delusions, looking at both historic and contemporary case studies.

In this programme he examines the Delusion of Despair.

He begins with the story of Francis Spira, the 15th-century Italian lawyer who believed he was damned by God – a case of delusional thinking that haunted the 16th and 17th centuries, and inspired Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.

In the last 20 years, our appreciation and understanding of delusions - a strongly held, fixed, false belief - has begun to shift enormously. Delusional ideas are remarkably common in the population. And delusions are closely tied to a person’s sense of self, their views of the world and what is happening in the environment.

Daniel talks to Cheryl to find out how an excessively negative sense of self can set in motion a troubling line of thought that other people may be judging you, observing you, and waiting to punish you.

Produced by Victoria Shepherd and Eve Streeter A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4

Clinical psychologist Professor Daniel Freeman continues his exploration of delusions, looking at both historic and contemporary case studies.

In this programme he examines the Delusion of Despair.

Produced by Victoria Shepherd and Eve Streeter A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4

Previous Episode

Cotard: the 'Walking Corpse Delusion'

Clinical psychologist Professor Daniel Freeman continues his exploration of delusions, looking at both historic and contemporary case studies.

In this programme, he examines Cotard's Syndrome - the belief that you are dead.

In Paris in 1880, Jules Cotard wrote the case study of a 43-year-old woman he called Mademoiselle X. He described her condition as “le délire des negations”. He recorded how she claimed to have “no brain, no nerves, no chest, no stomach and no intestines”. The “delusions negation” wrote Cotard, “extended to the metaphysical”, as Mademoiselle X believed “she has no soul and accordingly she does not need to eat in order to live.” She is recorded as dying of starvation.

Cotard’s Syndrome is often an extension of severe depression, a person’s explanation of experiences of disassociation and detachment. To find out more Daniel meets Sophie, who shares her own experience of believing she was dead.

Daniel's research at the University of Oxford focuses on improving our understanding and treatment of delusions – strongly held and preoccupying false beliefs. In this series he unearths case studies from the Renaissance, through to the asylums of 19th-century Paris and Victorian Britain. He meets people who have experienced delusional thinking first-hand and discovers more about the latest thinking on delusions from psychologists and psychiatrists. The purpose is to better understand this common but too-often unexplored human experience.

Produced by Victoria Shepherd and Eve Streeter A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4

Next Episode

Long Shadows: Trauma and Delusions

Clinical psychologist Professor Daniel Freeman continues his exploration of delusions, looking at historic and contemporary case studies.

In this programme, he looks at delusions relating to trauma.

He begins with a case study from 1800 recorded by the pioneering mental health physician Philippe Pinel in Paris, of a man who believed he had lost his head on the scaffold. It is one of many accounts of how guillotine trauma created delusional responses in people during the French Revolution.

It is vivid cases such as these most likely to be recorded in psychiatric studies. But today there is a growing awareness of the "clinician's illusion" and how mental health services see only the rare, extreme end of a continuum. Delusional thinking is actually more common then once thought, and for most people it is not problematic or in need of care.

In fact, is there an untold story in the history of delusions - that they can be helpful?

Daniel talks to John about the delusion he believes sustained him in the aftermath of a traumatic childhood.

Produced by Victoria Shepherd and Eve Streeter A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4