The Structure of Node and Edge Generation in a Delusional Social Network

Abstract

Abstract A rare set of data on a changing social network of personalities, drawn by a sufferer of Multiple Personality Disorder are investigated using random graph theory. The key features guiding the patient’s production of these wholly delusional networks, features which define her “schema” of social network, are derived by fitting a family of nested distributions. From this, we can derive a tentative hypothesis of how the laity may understand the logic of social networks, a hypothesis that is consonant with other forms of informal evidence.