incorrect interpretation of remarks, incidents and external events as referring directly to oneself. May be of delusional intensity when it becomes known as a Delusion of Reference.
A characteristic of some mental disorders, notably schizophrenia, in which the patient begins to think that external events are specially related to her personally (e.g., "People walk by and follow me").
The unfounded belief that objects, events, or people are of personal significance. For example, a person may think that a television program he is watching is all about him.
Ideas of reference should be distinguished from delusions of reference and they are an exaggerated form of self consciousness, usually driven by social anxiety. Delusions of reference involve a person having a belief or perception that irrelevant, unrelated or innocuous things in the world are referring to them directly or have special personal significance. The two are clearly distinguished in psychological literature.