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The Capgras delusion (or Capgras's syndrome) is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that an acquaintance, usually a spouse or other close family member, has been replaced by an identical looking impostor. The Capgras delusion is classed as a delusional misidentification syndrome, a class of delusional beliefs that involves the misidentification of people, places or objects. It can occur in acute, transient, or chronic forms. A delusion is commonly defined as a fixed false belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. ...
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Delusional misidentification syndrome is an umbrella term for a group of delusional disorders that occur in the context of mental or neurological illness. ...
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The delusion is most common in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, although it can occur in a number of conditions including after brain injury and dementia.[1] Although the Capgras delusion is commonly called a syndrome, because it can occur as part of, or alongside, various other disorders and conditions, some researchers have argued that it should be considered as a symptom, rather than a syndrome or classification in its own right. Brain damage or brain injury is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. ...
For other uses, see Dementia (disambiguation). ...
In medicine, the term syndrome is the association of several clinically recognizable features, signs, symptoms, phenomena or characteristics which often occur together, so that the presence of one feature alerts the physician to the presence of the others. ...
History It is named after Joseph Capgras (1873-1950), a French psychiatrist who first described the disorder in a 1923 paper by Capgras and Reboul-Lachaux.[2][3] They used the term l'illusion des sosies (the illusion of doubles) to describe the case of a French woman who complained that various "doubles" had taken the place of people she knew. However, the term illusion has a subtly different meaning from delusion in psychiatry so "the Capgras delusion" is used as a more suitable name. Joseph Capgras (1873 in Verdun-sur-Garonne – 1950 in Paris) was a French psychiatrist who is best known for the Capgras delusion, a disorder named after him. ...
1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...
Psychiatrist redirects here. ...
For other uses, see illusion (disambiguation). ...
A delusion is commonly defined as a fixed false belief and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. ...
Presentation This case is taken from a 1991 report by Passer and Warnock[4]: 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Mrs. D, a 74-year old married housewife, recently discharged from a local hospital after her first psychiatric admission, presented to our facility for a second opinion. At the time of her admission earlier in the year, she had received the diagnosis of atypical psychosis because of her belief that her husband had been replaced by another unrelated man. She refused to sleep with the imposter, locked her bedroom and door at night, asked her son for a gun, and finally fought with the police when attempts were made to hospitalize her. At times she believed her husband was her long deceased father. She easily recognized other family members and would misidentify her husband only.
Causes Some of the first clues to the possible causes of the Capgras delusion were suggested by the study of brain-injured patients who had developed prosopagnosia. In this condition, patients are unable to consciously recognise faces despite being able to recognise other types of visual objects. However, a 1984 study by Bauer showed that even though conscious face recognition was impaired, patients with the condition showed automatic arousal (measured by a galvanic skin response measure) to familiar faces,[5] suggesting that there are two pathways to face recognition - one conscious and one unconscious. Prosopagnosia (sometimes known as face blindness) is disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize objects may be relatively intact. ...
Galvanic skin response (or GSR), also known as electrodermal response (EDR) or psychogalvanic reflex (PGR), is a method of measuring the electrical resistance of the skin and interpreting it as an image of activity in certain parts of the body. ...
In a 1990 paper published in the British Journal of Psychiatry,[6] psychologists Hadyn Ellis and Andy Young hypothesised that patients with Capgras delusion may have a 'mirror image' of prosopagnosia, in that their conscious ability to recognise faces was intact, but they might have damage to the system which produces the automatic emotional arousal to familiar faces. This might lead to the experience of recognising someone, while feeling something wasn't 'quite right' about them. MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ...
In 1997 Hadyn Ellis and colleagues published a study of five patients with Capgras delusion (all diagnosed with schizophrenia) and confirmed that although they could consciously recognise the faces, they did not show the normal automatic emotional arousal response.[7] 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The same year, Hirstein and Ramachandran reported similar findings in a paper published on a single case of a patient with Capgras delusion after brain injury.[8] Ramachandran also portrays this case in his book Phantoms in the brain.[9] Since the patient was capable of feeling emotions and recognizing faces but couldn't feel emotions when recognizing familiar faces, Ramachandran hypothesizes that the origin of Capgras syndrome is a disconnection between the temporal cortex, where faces are usually recognized (see temporal lobe), and the limbic system, involved in emotions. Because the patient couldn't put together memories and feelings, he believed objects in a photograph were new on every viewing, even though they normally should have evoked feelings (e.g. a person close to him, a familiar object, or even himself). Ramachandran therefore believed there was a relationship between Capgras syndrome and a more general difficulty in linking successive episodic memories, since it is believed that emotion is critical for creating memories. American Philosopher William Hirstein is a professor of philosophy, and the current chair of the philosophy department at Elmhurst College. ...
Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran on an episode of PBSs NOVA Television program. ...
Look up cortex in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
The temporal lobes are part of the cerebrum. ...
The limbic system within the brain. ...
For other uses, see Emotion (disambiguation). ...
It is likely that more than an impairment of the automatic emotional arousal response is necessary to form Capgras delusion, as the same pattern has been reported in patients showing no signs of delusions.[10] Ellis and colleagues suggested that a second factor explains why this unusual experience is transformed into a delusional belief; this second factor is thought to be an impairment in reasoning, although no definitive impairment has been found to explain all cases.[11]
In fiction Capgras Syndrome plays an important part in Richard Powers' 2006 novel The Echo Maker, winner of the National Book Award. Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is a novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. ...
The Echo Maker (2006) is a novel by American writer Richard Powers which won the National Book Award for fiction. ...
The National Book Award is one of the most important literary prizes in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950 in at least one category, and are presently awarded in each...
In Shirley Jackson's short story "The Beautiful Stranger," the protagonist begins with the delusion that her husband has been replaced and is ultimately unable to recognize her own house. Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1916 [1]– August 8, 1965) was an influential American author. ...
Plot devices playing on this fear (typically in which protagonists know that their acquaintances have been replaced by spies, aliens, or monsters, while others think the protagonist insane), appear in several works of horror and science fiction. Well-known examples include Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Stepford Wives, Total Recall, The Astronaut's Wife, Impostor and The Faculty. The film adaptation of The Addams Family offers a unique perspective on this plot device when Uncle Fester is thought to be an impostor, but is actually the true individual who assumed he was playing a role as a result of amnesia and psychological manipulation. Spy and Secret agent redirect here. ...
A 1967 Soviet Union 16 kopeks stamp. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the reader. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 science fiction film. ...
For the 1975 film see The Stepford Wives (1975 film), for the 2004 remake see The Stepford Wives (2004 film). ...
Total Recall is an American science fiction film released on June 1, 1990 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Ronald Shusett, Dan OBannon, Jon Povill and Gary Goldman. ...
The Astronauts Wife is a 1999 science fiction/thriller film directed and written by Rand Ravich. ...
Impostor is based upon a short story written by Philip K. Dick in 1953. ...
The Faculty is a 1998 horror/science-fiction film, written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Robert RodrÃguez. ...
The Addams Family is an Academy Award-nominated comedy film based on the popular characters, The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams. ...
Uncle Fester on the left next to Morticia and Gomez Addams, with Thing in the foreground Uncle Fester is a character in The Addams Family. ...
Amnesia or amnæsia (from Greek ) (see spelling differences) is a condition in which memory is disturbed. ...
An example of Capgras delusion (and possibly a parody of the latter genre) occurs in The Outward Urge, where an astronaut develops the delusion that his colleague is a Martian. The Outward Urge (published 1959) is a science fiction book by John Wyndham. ...
In an episode of CSI:NY, a woman appeared to have Capgras syndrome when she was accused of murdering her brother.
See also Cognitive neuropsychiatry is a sub-discipline of psychology and psychiatry that aims to understand mental illness and psychopathology in terms of models of normal psychological function. ...
Face perception is the process by which the brain and mind understand and interpret the face, particularly the human face. ...
The Fregoli delusion or Fregoli syndrome is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes their appearance or is in disguise. ...
Joseph Capgras (1873 in Verdun-sur-Garonne – 1950 in Paris) was a French psychiatrist who is best known for the Capgras delusion, a disorder named after him. ...
A monothematic delusion is a delusional state that only concerns one particular topic. ...
Prosopagnosia (sometimes known as face blindness) is disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize objects may be relatively intact. ...
References - ^ Forstl, H.; Almeida, O.P.; Owen, A.M.; Burns, A.; & Howard, R. (1991). Psychiatric, neurological and medical aspects of misidentification syndromes: a review of 260 cases. Psychological Medicine 21 (4) 905–910.[1]
- ^ Capgras, J. & Reboul-Lachaux, J. (1923). Illusion des sosies dans un delire systematise chronique. Bulletin de la Societe Clinique de Medicine Mentale 2 6–16.
- ^ Ellis, H.D.; Whitley, J.; & Luaute, J.P. (1994). Delusional misidentification. The three original papers on the Capgras, Frégoli and intermetamorphosis delusions (Classic Text No. 17). History of Psychiatry 5 (17) 117–146.[2]
- ^ Passer, K.M. & Warnock, J.K. (1991). Pimozide in the treatment of Capgras' syndrome. A case report. Psychosomatics 32 (4) 446–448.[3]
- ^ Bauer, R.M. (1984) Autonomic recognition of names and faces in prosopagnosia: a neuropsychological application of the guilty knowledge test. Neuropsychologia 22, 457–469.
- ^ Ellis, H. D., & Young, A. W. (1990) Accounting for delusional misidentifications. Br J Psychiatry, 157, 239-248.
- ^ Ellis, H. D., Young, A. W., Quayle, A. H., & De Pauw, K. W. (1997) Reduced autonomic responses to faces in Capgras delusion. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 264, 1085-1092.
- ^ Hirstein, W., & Ramachandran, V. S. (1997) Capgras syndrome: a novel probe for understanding the neural representation of the identity and familiarity of persons. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 264, 437-444."
- ^ Ramachandran, V. S; Blakeslee S. (1998). Phantoms in the Brain. Great Britain: Harper Perennial. ISBN 10-1-85702-895-3.
- ^ Tranel D, Damasio H, Damasio A (1995) Double dissociation between overt and covert face recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 425-432.
- ^ Davies, M., Coltheart, M., Langdon, R., & Breen, N. (2001) Monothematic delusions: Towards a two-factor account. Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, 8, 133-158.
Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran on an episode of PBSs NOVA Television program. ...
António C. R. Damásio (IPA: //) (b. ...
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