Delusional Misidentification Syndrome: Why Such Nosologic Challenge Remains Intractable

Abstract

The delusional misidentification syndrome has lately been the object of lengthy psychopathological discussions. Controversies persist as to how best to define it, distinguish its subtypes and set their limits. Attempts to provide this syndrome with a better conceptual framework have usually relied on proposing new definitions and classifications. In this article, we suggest that some prevailing difficulties are basically related to two separate but intertwined issues: the self-reflexive property of the human mental functioning and the first-person linguistic expression of human experience. We argue that this discussion belongs to a broader context than the one it is usually referred to, as it deals with problems germane to conceptual psychopathological investigations in general. In that regard, DMS provides us with a very telling example, to the extent to which it has, at its core, to account for the puzzling phenomena of identity, which are particularly affected by cultural and linguistic variables.

Dementia with aphasia and mirror phenomenon: examination of the mechanism using neuroimaging and neuropsychological findings: a case report

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An Unusual Case of Erotomania and Delusional Misidentification Syndrome

“…Other researchers have questioned the nosological status and the validity of erotomania, [33][34][35]30 or both conditions, 13 while acknowledging that the eponymous terms remain interesting for historical reasons. The conclusion reached by the authors of a report on a case similar to this one-on co-occurring Capgras and erotomania in a patient with paranoid schizophrenia 13 -is that the syndromes are not distinct entities, but instead clusters of delusions, and their cooccurrence is the result of a generalized psychiatric process (ie, psychosis) causing many types of misinterpretations.…”

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