Do you suffer from Pseudo-Skepticism?

[Act_of_Reparation]

50. I would argue my degree qualifies me to call bullshit on your bullshit.

Hofstadter didn't "borrow" anything from anyone. He used the word "paranoia" in its colloquial, common-usage sense to describe irrational or unjustified feelings of persecution.

Furthermore, "paranoia" is not, in and of itself, a clinical term. It is a word which, like "delusion", early psychologists borrowed from common usage to describe a particular pattern of thought which may or may not lead to pathological outcomes. Many people exhibit paranoid thinking; in very few of them are these patterns so pronounced as to be considered an "illness". Moreover, there is no diagnosis for "Paranoia"; there are simply a few illnesses which display paranoid features, among many other requisite symptoms.

You see, not only am I well-versed in the psychological disciplines, I also happen to be neuro-atypical myself. Due to some genetic fluke which, in combination with a high-stress home environment, resulted in the overly-rapid reuptake of serotonin, I suffer with what in psychological terms is called "depression". But, I understand "depression" isn't a word psychologists invented, that it is a word psychologists borrowed from common parlance, that this word has multiple context-dependent meanings. Take note how I don't get bent out of shape when someone watches a "depressing" movie, or when a tropical "depression" strikes the Florida panhandle.

Sorry to rain on your outrage parade.