In the New York Times, there is an article about a patient with a confounding disorder. The disorder is known as Capgras Delusion. People who suffer from this illness believe that their loved ones, most likely the spouse, are being replaced by nearly-identical replicas. Which, in a perfect world, would be great for spicing up the old marriage. Unfortunately, the experience is usually rather frightening for the sick person, and they may even begin to believe that inanimate objects and pets have been replaced. Amazingly, even their own reflections are often believed to be impostors.
Capgras Delusion is thought to be caused by a head trauma or lesions/tumors that break the connections between the facial-recognition area of the brain and the area associated with emotions. The syndrome often accompanies epilepsy, schizophrenia, strokes and malformed lobes.
This seems like an off-the-wall disorder, absurd and unrelatable, but we all experience a little taste of Capgras Delusion when we have feelings of deja vu or jamais vu.
Basically, the area of the brain where the idea of the yourself is stored becomes traumatized. You can no longer access your feelings and thoughts about yourself and your relationships to other people. So when you see your friend, your brain knows that he looks like friend but you are unable to access any sort of familiarity with that person. It's a complete breakdown of the "sense of self."
It doesn't sound so absurd now.
There are treatments for this condition, both pharmaceutical and psychiatric. If someone you think you know suffers from Capgras Syndrome and needs to see an unreplacable doctor, click here.
