[Superstition, faith, delusion].

Résumé

The superstitious person makes use of various projective mechanisms and establishes a connection between two events or between an object and an event which are not causally related. Superstition can be understood as a narcissistic attempt at compensation by persons lacking self-confidence, who feel themselves to be under an existential threat. Religious belief can be defined as a commitment to an ultimate meaning in life. Absolute faith requires hope, in fact genuine faith is unthinkable without hope. A prerequisite, an underlying emotional substrate, of the development of faith is trust, in the sense of basic trust. A characteristic of genuine religious belief is orthopraxy, the practical application of faith in this world. The integrity of religious belief is in itself vulnerable, since, unlike delusion, it can be modified. Delusion is a disturbance of thought content which is maintained with absolute conviction. The deluded person is not capable of doubting or correcting the false belief. Transition from faith to superstition and vice versa is often fluid. Superstition can be the starting point for delusional ideas. It must be distinguished from delusion and in most cases it is easy to do so. The superstitious person feels secure in his world, while the deluded person breaks out of this security and places himself outside the community, outside the society that supports him.