If we are talking about someone who thinks that they are being tried to kill him, that the police have tapped his phone or that he knows a truth that other people want to silence, it is easy to think that it is someone with some kind of delusional disorder .

But sometimes some of these people are telling something real that ends up being mistakenly considered a product of the mind and imagination. We are talking about cases where there has been the Martha Mitchell effect , whose name is based on a true story.

Delirium in Psychopathology

To fully understand the Martha Mitchell effect, it is first necessary to reflect on what a delusion is.

Delirium is one of the most studied symptoms as far as the psychopathology part of the content of thought is concerned. This is understood as that or those false and unlikely ideas or beliefs that the subject holds with total conviction despite the fact that the evidence may be against them.

They are extravagant ideas and beliefs , sustained by the subject with great vehemence, lived as true and unchangeable that cause the individual great discomfort and anguish.

The contents of the delirium are important, since they are closely linked at a symbolic level to the patient’s fears and life experiences, as well as to cultural aspects that have influenced him to have a certain mentality. Some examples include the idea of being persecuted or controlled , that the phenomena that occur are directed towards the subject, that our partner is unfaithful to us, that someone is totally in love with us, that we have deformities or that we are dead and decomposing or that those around us are impostors posing as our fellow human beings.

How does the delusion originate?

Why delusions arise is something that still has no clear answer. However, some of the main hypotheses establish that is a cognitive and more or less structured elaboration that aims to give an answer to an anomalous perception. The cognitive process carried out by sufferers may be biased, but it may also be normal.

This means that in some cases establishing a boundary between the real and the delusional can be more complex than it appears. Despite the fact that their characteristics are generally visible and strange from the outside, the truth is that if the facts are observed from the subject’s perception they can have coherence and logic (after all it is not impossible that someone is watching us to steal from us or that they are unfaithful to us, for example). That is why on some occasions it is possible to identify a real fact as delirium. This is what happens in the so-called Martha Mitchell effect.

The Martha Mitchell Effect

The Martha Mitchell effect is understood as a situation in which professionals in psychology and/or psychiatry reach the conclusion that a specific event reported by the patient is the product of a delusion or an altered state of consciousness, and that the event is true.

The events in question usually refer to events with a low probability of occurrence, that are implausible and with a high level of implausibility, which are not shared by the social environment and with an emphasis on the perception of the phenomenon as something self-referential and directed towards the person himself. Clear examples of this are the ideas of being persecuted by criminal gangs, being watched by the government, or possessing information of great importance that someone wants to silence.

Martha Mitchell and the Watergate case

The name of this effect is based on a real case. Martha Mitchell was the wife of state attorney general John Mitchell, in the time of Richard Nixon . She was also a campaign assistant. This woman was well known in her time for her unstable personality, frequent outbursts and a presumed drinking problem.

Martha Mitchell also denounced on numerous occasions different irregularities produced by the administration, including corruption and alleged espionage. However, her allegations were ignored when they were held for delusions or other problems resulting from mental illness.

Some time later, the scandal of the Watergate case would come to light . All the people who had humiliated Martha trying to stigmatize her with the burden of mental illness had clearly made a mistake.Although some of the irregularities she mentioned were not proven, many of the corrupt practices that had been taken for delusions or even attempts to draw attention to herself turned out to have a real basis.

Why does it happen?

The reasons for the Martha Mitchell effect are mainly its similarity to delusions: the facts reported are implausible and often concern aspects that are difficult to evaluate objectively.

Furthermore, it is more likely that this diagnostic error is reached if the person in question presents certain characteristics that make it more likely that it is a delusional perception or interpretation of reality.

For example, a person with a diagnosed psychotic disorder, an individual who has previously suffered from delusions, a subject with a histrionic personality, or someone who is addicted to substances with hallucinogenic effects. These are aspects that make it easier for facts that are in principle harmless to be processed in a distorted way.