Paranoid Government Disorder: A new global epidemic?

Governments with this organizational disorder may habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of civil society for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. Paranoid governments are eager to expand control and surveillance and reduce individual rights. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other evidence.

Governments suffering from PGD tend to create enemy images, that is, negative perceptions of individuals, a group of individuals and/or other governments based on paranoid delusions. They tend to distort experience by misconstructing the neutral or friendly actions of these groups as hostile or contemptuous.

The scientific literature describes two kinds of enemy images: the internal (perceived as working within society) and the external (perceived as working outside of society). It is a common delusion among governments with PGD that the groups or individuals identified as the internal enemy are the foreign agents of the external enemy.

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