[QUOTE=Carlyjay]
I was under the impression that sociopathy or psychopathy could be described this way. But IANA psychologist.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know. I don’t think sociopaths actually believe that the world is a figment of their imagination. They just don’t have empathy for the feelings of others.
[QUOTE=Eve]
Oh, great. This concept had never even occured to me before, and now I’m sitting here thinking, how do I know that other people aren’t really just elements of my own imagination, and this whole imaginary world exists only for my enjoyment?
[/QUOTE]
I was just thinking the same thing and now I’n trying to figure out if I have enough time to throw myself in front of the 12:53 train.
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
I was just thinking the same thing and now I’n trying to figure out if I have enough time to throw myself in front of the 12:53 train.
[/QUOTE]
Given that you have already set up the internally consistent “rules” of your imaginary universe, the chances are good that you will have been killed or seriously injured if you did. So I hope you didn’t.
And I agree that if I set up the external universe for my amusement/entertainment, I should have done a hell of a lot better job!
Actually solipsism is in some ways exactly the opposite pathology as schizophrenia isn’t it? A schizophrenic believes figments of his mind are real, and a solipsist believes things that are real are figments of his mind.
I believe it is known as “My Ex.”
Sorry, somebody had to say it.
And by the way either belief could be delusional. It’s the intensity of the belief that defines the delusion. Falsifiability is merely a way to operationalize that, but it’s really not an inherent criterion in a delusion. In principle it’s possible to be delusionally convinced of something that turns out to be true. It’s just impractically hard to prove that such a belief is delusional. For instance a person could be delusionally convinced they are dying of cancer - and in fact turn out to be dying of cancer.
In response to the OP…its “being a teenager”.