Photo by Robby Massey
The following passage is from Neuro.psychiatryonline.org:
“Fregoli syndrome is the delusional misidentification of familiar persons disguised as others. While the organic etiology of Capgras syndrome, another delusional misidentification syndrome (DMS), is widely studied, there are only anecdotal reports on a similar etiology for Fregoli syndrome.”
Case Report:
“A 30-year-old woman was admitted with first break psychosis of acute onset characterized by disorganized behavior, loosening of association, auditory hallucinations, and persecutory delusions. The striking feature of the patient’s psychopathology was her misidentifying strangers as people known to her. In the emergency room, she misidentified another patient as her boyfriend and on the unit she misidentified the nurse as her mother and the social worker as her sister. Though these persons bore no close resemblance with the patient’s family members, the patient was convinced that her family members had been transformed into these strangers.”
Photo by Katie Tilford
The following passage about Capgras Syndrome is from Psychnet-UK:
“The person’s primary delusion is that a close relative or friend has been replaced by an impostor, an exact double, despite recognition of familiarity in appearance and behavior. The patient may also see himself as his own double. For persons suffering from Capgras Syndrome they typically believe they exist in a world of impersonators. This feeling in a delusional world of doubles can be so alarming that it drives the Capgras sufferer to psychotic behavior. The syndrome typically has the following characteristics:
- The person is convinced that one or several persons known by the sufferer have been replaced by a double, an identical looking impostor.
- The patient sees true and double persons.
- It can may extend to animals and objects.
- The person is conscious of the abnormality of these perceptions. There is no hallucination.
- The double is usually a key figure for the person at the time of onset of symptoms. If married, always the husband or wife accordingly.”
Photo by Sumner Lambert
The following passage is from Neurology.org:
“Cotard’s syndrome or Cotard’s delusion comprises any one of a series of delusions ranging from the fixed and unshakable belief that one has lost organs, blood, or body parts to believing that one has lost one’s soul or is dead. In its most profound form, the delusion takes the form of a professed belief that one does not exist. Encountered primarily in psychoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Cotard’s syndrome has also been described in organic lesions of the nondominant temporoparietal cortex as well as in migraine.”