Via Cosma Shalizi: Vaughan Bell, C. Maiden, A. Munoz-Solomando and V. Reddy, “‘Mind control experiences’ on the internet: Implications for the psychiatric diagnosis of delusions,” Psychopathology 39 (2006):

Of particular interest for this study is the exemption clause in the diagnostic criteria for a delusion, as laid out in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). According to this criterion a belief is not considered delusional if it is “accepted by other members of the person’s culture or subculture.” . . .

[T]he results presented here demonstrate a paradox, in that the sampled authors’ online community is based upon the content of potentially delusional beliefs . . . To extend the paradox, by DSM-IV criteria it would seem that a person diagnosed as delusional would only have to find him or herself the nearest internet connected computer to ‘cure’ themselves of delusion by searching out other people with the same belief and joining or forming an online community.

Certainly doesn’t sound like anyone, or any online subculture, that I  know . . .

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