Premium
Towards an Understanding of Delusions of Misidentification: Four Case Studies
Author(s) -
Breen Nora,
Caine Diana,
Coltheart Max,
Hendy Julie,
Roberts Corrine
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0017.00124
Subject(s) - delusion , psychology , context (archaeology) , cognitive psychology , capgras syndrome , interpretation (philosophy) , cognition , developmental psychology , anosognosia , philosophy , psychiatry , linguistics , biology , paleontology
Four detailed cases of delusions of misidentification (DM) are presented: two cases of misidentification of the reflected self, one of reverse intermetamorphosis, and one of reduplicative paramnesia. The cases are discussed in the context of three levels of interpretation: neurological, cognitive and phenomenological. The findings are compared to previous work with DM patients, particularly the work of Ellis and Young (1990; Young, 1998) who found that loss of the normal affective response to familiar faces was a contributing factor in the Capgras delusion. The four cases presented suggest that this particular deficit is not a critical factor in the development of other forms of DM.