Abstract

It is generally recognized that Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional: certainty, incorrigibility and impossibility of content. But the fundamental point for Jaspers is that we have to think of delusion not as an isolated phenomenon but as a modification of the way we live in the world, or – in Heideggerian words – of our being-in-the-world. Which kind of event could explain such a modification? Our human life is structured by world-views, which are not mere “views” or theoretical representations but basically also moods that give its specific aspect and coherence to the world, and these world-views provide a shelter against the evanescence of all things. Our thesis is that confronted to a traumatic experience, the fragilization of a worldview is able to produce its implosion or petrification, i.e. flight of ideas or delusion.