ABSTRACT
It is argued that delusions imply a disconnection of basic certainties and access to shared common sense perspectives. An analysis of everyday certainties and trust is given, and how these constitute the background, that is, a person's world-adapted global dispositions and capacities. A key argument is that psychosis involves the suspension or destruction of background dispositions as a consequence of the effects of abuse. Evidence is presented on how participants had lost trust, experienced confusion about everyday events, yet became certain about persecutory ideas. In addition they had suffered abuse of the ability to know leading to epistemic mistrust, the latter affecting a person's social learning. Following adult abuse a person may develop different parts of the self; some are disturbed, highly emotional, and have a weak connection to the background certainties. During episodes of depression, even the just copying self is suspended. Children also experience the creation of different selves; one is a just coping self but other terrified parts develop which are rarely apparent. Years later under stress the terrified self, with its weak connection to the background, is activated and the person becomes psychotic.
