The psychotic subject and the function of delusions

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of delusion and its function in the psychotic structure. Psychoanalysis considers delusions, on the one hand, as elementary phenomena and, on the other, as realities to be treated through truth. Here we address the delusional structure and its function in the paranoid subject, in order to determine the direction of treatment for the patient. We take a clinical case and, based on psychoanalytic concepts, discuss the function of delusion for the subject. The invention of the subject is considered beyond delusion, based on a point of stabilization, and occurring without the delusion.