Paranoia is running away from your own negative projections as you see them plastered on someone else's face -- and not knowing that they are your own projections which may or may not be 'accurate' as 'social perceptions'. If they are accurate as social perceptions, well then that, obviously, is not paranoia. That is getting 'external reality right' which is the proper function of what our social perceptions are supposed to be doing; paranoia, in contrast, is when we are getting our social perceptions constantly wrong because of our own negative self-perceptions (self-image/self-esteem) and/or our wish to hurt/reject others as we imagine they wish to hurt/reject us.
-- dgb, June 13, 2012...
-- David Gordon Bain
