Synonyms
Reduplication delusion; Reduplicative paramnesia
Short Description or Definition
Delusions are defined as false beliefs based on incorrect inference about external reality and firmly sustained in spite of the opinions of others or contrary evidence (American Psychiatric Association 1987).
Capgras syndrome (Capgras and Reboul-Lachaux 1923) is a type of reduplication delusion involving the belief that persons well-known to the patient, such as family members, have identical doubles or are imposters. The double or imposter is sometimes perceived as differing slightly in some physical characteristic from the “genuine” person, but the patient may have difficulty verbalizing the precise nature of this “difference.”
Categorization
Several variations of Capgras syndrome have been identified. Doppelganger or subjective double is the belief that the patient himself/herself has a double or impersonator (Christodoulou 1978). Fregoli syndromeis the belief that a person is capable of...
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References and Readings
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Malloy, P. (2018). Capgras Syndrome. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1349
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