Worlds and World itself

To live in its own world is a fundamental phenomenon of life . . . This primal, integrative process of life as an existence in and along with its own world is exemplified in human life too, but human beings take the process even further through conscious discrimination and an active influence on their own world and then through their generalised knowledge of it. By such means life transcends itself and moves on into other possible worlds and beyond the concept of World itself. 

Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology, trans. J. Hoenig and Marian W. Hamilton, Vol. 1, Introduction § Introduction, § 2. Some basic concepts, (d) Inner and outer world

Delusional significance

A patient noticed the waiter in the coffee-house; he skipped past him so quickly and uncannily. He noticed odd behaviour in an acquaintance which made him feel strange; everything in the street was so different, something was bound to be happening. A passer-by gave such a penetrating glance, he could be a detective. Then there was a dog who seemed hypnotised, a kind of mechanical dog made of rubber. There were such a lot of people walking about, something must surely be starting up against the patient. All the umbrellas were rattling as if some apparatus was hidden inside them. . . . Something must be going on; the world is changing, a new era is starting. Lights are bewitched and will not burn; something is behind it. A child is like a monkey; people are mixed up, they are imposters all, they all look unnatural. The house-signs are crooked, the streets look suspicious; everything happens so quickly. The dog scratches oddly at the door. 'I noticed particularly' is the constant remark these patients make, though they cannot say why they take such particular note of things nor what it is they suspect.

Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology, Volume One, 

translated by J. Hoenig and Marian W. Hamilton, 

Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1997, p. 100