The delusional misidentification syndromes: Strange, fascinating, and instructive

The delusional misidentification syndromes (Capgras’ syndrome, Frégoli syndrome, intermetamorphosis syndrome, syndrome of subjective doubles) are rare psychopathologic phenomena that occur primarily in the setting of schizophrenic illness, affective disorder, and organic illness. They are grouped to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current psychiatry reports 2009-06, Vol.11 (3), p.185-189
Main Authors: Christodoulou, George N., Margariti, Maria, Kontaxakis, Vassilis P., Christodoulou, Nikos G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capgras Syndrome - classification
Capgras Syndrome - diagnosis
Capgras Syndrome - psychology
Delusional disorder
Diagnosis, Differential
Female
Humans
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Models, Psychological
Prosopagnosia - classification
Prosopagnosia - diagnosis
Prosopagnosia - psychology
Psychiatry
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Summary:The delusional misidentification syndromes (Capgras’ syndrome, Frégoli syndrome, intermetamorphosis syndrome, syndrome of subjective doubles) are rare psychopathologic phenomena that occur primarily in the setting of schizophrenic illness, affective disorder, and organic illness. They are grouped together because they often co-occur and interchange, and their basic theme is the concept of the double ( sosie ). They are distinguished as hypoidentifications (Capgras’ syndrome) and hyperidentifications (the other three syndromes). In this review, we present the basic hypotheses that have been put forward to explain these syndromes and propose that the appearance of these syndromes must alert physicians to investigate the existence of possible organic contributions.
ISSN:1523-3812
1535-1645
DOI:10.1007/s11920-009-0029-6