An Unusual Case of Delusional Misidentification: ‘Delusional Hermaphroditism’

Mulholland, Ciaran; O’Hara, Arthur G.

doi:10.1159/000029093

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…8 Physical and/or psychological delusional misidentification in relation to the self has also been described. 9–11 More recently, Mulholland and O’Hara have reported a new variant of DMS named “delusional hermaphroditism.” 12 Finally, nurturing syndrome is an increasingly recognized delusion, clustering with phenomena of misidentification, in which the patient believes a dead family member to be alive. 13 These patients often request the police to search for their missing relatives and feed and sleep with pictures of the dead family members.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delusional Misidentification Syndromes and Dementia

Cipriani¹,

Vedovello²,

Ulivi³

et al. 2013

Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen

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The delusional misidentification syndromes (DMSs) are psychopathologic phenomena in which a patient consistently misidentifies persons, places, objects, or events. Although often described in relation to psychotic states including schzofrenia, it is, nevertheless, widely considered that these syndromes have an anatomical basis because of their frequent association with organic brain disease; studies have pointed to the presence of identifiable lesions, especially in the right frontal lobe and adjacent regions, in a considerable proportion of patients. The purpose of this article is to examine the phenomenon in people with dementia. We searched the electronic databases for original research and review articles on DMS in patients with dementia using the search terms "Delusional Misidentification Syndrome, Capgras syndrome, Fregoli syndrome, reduplicative paramnesia, and dementia." The DMSs are a frequent problem in dementia. The violence and dangerousness in patients with dementia having these syndromes are well documented, and forensic aspects are highlighted. Pathogenetic viewpoint and management are considered.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delusional Misidentification Syndromes and Dementia

Cipriani¹,

Vedovello²,

Ulivi³

et al. 2013

Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen

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show abstract

“…His belief was reinforced by the voice of the goddess that he heard. Mulholland and O'Hara [17] have documented similar findings in a patient of schizophrenia who believed that his ex-girlfriend stayed inside his body, which they termed 'delusional hermaphroditism'.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…In a study, Silva and Leong [9] have documented syndromes, such as reverse Capgras, reverse Fregoli and reverse intermetamorphosis in patients with schizophrenia. Recently, Mulholland and O'Gara [17] have described an unusual variant of DMS, i.e., delusional hermaphroditism. In this study, we report another case of this rare phenomenological entity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delusional Hermaphroditism: A Rare Variant of Delusional Misidentification Syndrome

Jagadheesan

Sandil²,

Nizamie³

2002

Psychopathology

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“…Another subtype (b) case involved a fictional known person. Mulholland and O'Hara () reported a 44‐year‐old male with chronic schizophrenia and a web of delusions, many of which were about the place where he lived; although this place resembled a Northern Ireland city (which it was), to the patient, it was really “Middle Earth” from Tolkien's () “The Lord of the Rings.” His Fregoli delusion was part of this web; he believed that he was being followed and persecuted by “Saruman,” one of the main characters in Lord of the Rings, who took on the guise of the different people he met (the multiple real persons).…”

Section: Subtypes Of Fregoli Delusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Fregoli Delusion: A Disorder of Person Identification and Tracking

Langdon

Connaughton

Coltheart

2014

Topics in Cognitive Science

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Fregoli delusion is the mistaken belief that some person currently present in the deluded person's environment (typically a stranger) is a familiar person in disguise. The stranger is believed to be psychologically identical to this known person (who is not present) even though the deluded person perceives the physical appearance of the stranger as being different from the known person's typical appearance. To gain a deeper understanding of this contradictory error in the normal system for tracking and identifying known persons, we conducted a detailed survey of all the Fregoli cases reported in the literature since the seminal Courbon and Fail (1927) paper. Our preliminary reading of these cases revealed a notable lack of definitional clarity. So, we first formulated a classification scheme of different person misidentification delusions so as to identify those cases that qualified as instances of Fregoli according to the above characterization: the mistaken belief that a known person is present in the environment in a different guise to his or her typical appearance. We identified 38 clear cases of this type and set out to answer a series of questions motivated by current hypotheses about the origin of the Fregoli delusion. We asked whether the patients misidentified particular strangers, made reference to the misidentified known persons using wigs or plastic surgery (or other techniques to disguise their appearance), misidentified many different strangers or only one, showed other symptoms (in particular, other misidentification delusions), and made inferences about the motives of the known persons in disguise. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for current hypotheses concerning the origin of the Fregoli delusion.

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An Unusual Case of Delusional Misidentification: ‘Delusional Hermaphroditism’

Cited by 11 publications

References 22 publications

Delusional Misidentification Syndromes and Dementia

Delusional Misidentification Syndromes and Dementia

Delusional Hermaphroditism: A Rare Variant of Delusional Misidentification Syndrome

The Fregoli Delusion: A Disorder of Person Identification and Tracking

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