Pathology of imagination in an adolescent at clinical high-risk for psychosis.

Abstract

We report a pathological imagination process in an adolescent at clinical high-risk for psychosis, associated with the presence of self-disorders. The subjective experience associated with pathological imagination helped in distinguishing such mental activity from intrusive thoughts of obsessive-compulsive patients; moreover, such anomalous imagination focused on other people may be an adaptive process triggered by negative emotionality against others that appear difficult or impossible to relationally grasp and attune with. In conclusion, anomalies of imaginations may occur within the schizophrenic spectrum since adolescent prodromal stages, associated with self-disorders.