David LaPorte

How to live in a time of fear and paranoia

One of David LaPorte’s patients saw very thin wires throughout her house she believed her husband had connected to listening devices to spy on her. ‘The wires were of a special quality such that they disinte­grated when a person’s body heat approached them,’ LaPorte writes in his book Paranoid: Exploring Suspicion From the Dubious to the Delusional (2015).

Another patient believed that the neighbours were using their satellite dish to monitor his thoughts and eavesdrop on him electronically. So he decided to cut the electric cables underneath their house. Psychologist and researcher David LaPorte understands what paranoia is, how and why it manifests itself, and the many forms it takes, including stalking, pathological jealousy, and perhaps even militia movements.

LaPorte completed his doctorate in clinical psychology at Temple University and his internship and postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Minnesota. He previously held academic positions at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. Currently, he is a professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has published and presented in the areas of substance abuse, obesity and eating disorders, schizophrenia and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, forensic psychology, and clinical neuropsychology.

When not following paranoid pursuits he prefers to submerge, diving in the ocean wherever he can.