James Tilly Matthews's guest appearances

James Tilly Matthews

The 7th Avenue Project

A History of Delusions

Steven Pinker

Allyson Hobbs

Jon Mooallem

Robert Sapolsky

Wes Moore

David Harrington

Laura Kipnis

Rick Doblin

Orson Welles

John Hodgman

Richard Ford

Garry Shandling

Kumail Nanjiani

Nore Davis

Brian Greene

OwlTail

Clinical psychologist Daniel Freeman explores cases of delusion from the archives and speaks to people who have experienced them first-hand.In this programme, Daniel examines the most common type of delusion – paranoia. The incorrect belief that others are observing you and may be trying to harm you. Occasionally in the archives, cases emerge that allow us to see what such a delusion might have meant on an existential level for a person suffering from it. One of them is the case of James Tilly Matthews. A London tea broker who was committed to Bethlem psychiatric hospital in 1797, Tilly Matthews became convinced of an elaborate conspiracy involving the British establishment and a mind-controlling machine called the Air Loom. He is considered to be the first fully documented case of paranoid schizophrenia.Developing the understanding and treatment of paranoia has been the focus of Daniel's work as a clinical psychologist at the University of Oxford. Deciding whether to trust or mistrust is a vital aspect of human cognition, but accurate judgment of others’ intentions is often challenging. At a cultural level, a fear of others is variably connected to the political and social climate. At the heart of the severest paranoia - persecutory delusions - is the unfounded belief in an ongoing threat from others. In people seen in clinical services with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the fears can also be provoked by hearing negative voices (auditory hallucinations). Daniel meets Toby, who volunteered to share his own experience of a paranoid delusion, and the isolation that takes hold as a consequence.  Produced by Victoria Shepherd and Eve StreeterA Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4

Clinical psychologist Daniel Freeman explores cases of delusion from the archives and speaks to people who have experienced them first-hand. In this programme, Daniel examines the most common type of delusion – paranoia. The incorrect belief that others are observing you and may be trying to harm you. Occasionally in the archives, cases emerge that allow us to see what such a delusion might have meant on an existential level for a person suffering from it. One of them is the case of James Tilly Matthews. A London tea broker who was committed to Bethlem psychiatric hospital in 1797, Tilly Matthews became convinced of an elaborate conspiracy involving the British establishment and a mind-controlling machine called the Air Loom. He is considered to be the first fully documented case of paranoid schizophrenia. Developing the understanding and treatment of paranoia has been the focus of Daniel's work as a clinical psychologist at the University of Oxford. Deciding whether to trust or mistrust is a vital aspect of human cognition, but accurate judgment of others’ intentions is often challenging. At a cultural level, a fear of others is variably connected to the political and social climate. At the heart of the severest paranoia - persecutory delusions - is the unfounded belief in an ongoing threat from others. In people seen in clinical services with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, the fears can also be provoked by hearing negative voices (auditory hallucinations). Daniel meets Toby, who volunteered to share his own experience of a paranoid delusion, and the isolation that takes hold as a consequence. Produced by Victoria Shepherd and Eve Streeter A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4

A Paranoid Conspiracy: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom Gang

Mike Jay

Two hundred years ago James Tilly Matthews described a sinister political plot using the latest technologies to influence official opinion and plunge England into war. He was branded a lunatic and sent to the notorious Bedlam insane asylum. But was Matthews really bonkers, or was he just ahead of his time? Historian Mike Jay says Matthews' dark vision of technology-assisted conspiracy has become a defining idea of our own age. How reality caught up with paranoid delusions.

Mike Jay: the Case of James Tilly Matthews and the Dawn of Techno-Paranoia