Studied the fate of delusions in schizophrenics and other paranoid psychotics in an Arabian population to determine the relation between the outcome of delusions and mode of onset and the variables affecting both. Involution of delusions may be effected through their disappearance into the system of socially shared delusory cultural beliefs or their metamorphosis into less sinister symptoms (e.g., dreams, fantasies, or ruminations). Patients presenting with subjective suffering fared best and had an overrepresentation of those living in extended families. The culturally shared belief system provides a container for delusions that lose their pathological quality and content. The effects of literacy and prolonged residence abroad on the contents and modes of expression of delusions are discussed.