Paranoia is a delirium of interpretation. Each fact, event, force, observation is caught in one system of speculation and “understood” by the afflicted individual in such a way that it absolutely confirms and reinforces his thesis — that is, the initial delusion which is his point of departure. Just as in a magnetic field metal molecules align themselves to exert a collective, cumulative pull, so, through unstoppable, systematic and in themselves strictly rational associations, the paranoiac turns the whole world into a magnetic field of facts, all pointing in the same direction.

Paranoia is a shock of recognition that never ends.

Rem Koolhaas, The Paranoid-Critical Method

paranoia