Delusions of Psychological Change of the Self

Abstract

Delusions of psychological change of the self are becoming increasingly appreciated as a type of misidentification delusions. Most available knowledge on delusions of psychological change of the self derives from single case studies. In this article, we present a study encompassing 30 cases of this delusion. Diagnostic and phenomenologic aspects of this delusion are discussed as well as its relation to other types of misidentification delusions.

The misidentification syndromes as mindreading disorders

“…Capgras' syndrome occurs when egocentric representations of a particular person are damaged or inaccessible and are replaced by other, incorrect representations. One piece of data that is at least consistent with the claim that malfunction exists in a system that is involved in representing both ourselves and others is the cooccurrence in patients of both self-misidentifications and misidentifications of others (see, e.g., Hirstein & Ramachandran, 1997; several of the 30 patients with Capgras' for self reviewed by Silva & Leong, 1994, also had Capgras' syndrome directed at others).…”

“…Many are paranoid about the ''impostor'', and attribute intent to harm to him, but there are also cases where the patient's attitude is positive. Capgras' syndrome patients will sometimes even misidentify themselves as seen in photos, or even in a mirror (Hirstein & Ramachandran, 1997;Silva & Leong, 1994, review 30 cases of Capgras' for oneself). Capgras' syndrome fits the pattern of damage seen in the memory syndromes: damage to some knowledge system, in this case a perceptual one, paired with frontal damage (Signer, 1994).…”

Effects of semantic matching and of semantic category on reaction time and N400 that resist numerous repetitions

“…On the other hand, given the robustness of the semantic matching effect in version 2, it seems that these links could be studied in individual subjects. This could be of interest for case studies in psychiatry, for instance in the exploration of the neurocognitive mechanisms of delusion (Debruille et al, 2007;Neagoe, 2000;Silva & Leong, 1994).…”