The Cognitive Neuropsychiatric Origins of the Capgras Delusion

Abstract

Following a brief description of the principal Delusional Misidentification Syndrome (DMS) we shall concentrate on Capgras Syndrome. This so-called syndrome involves patients, often but not exclusively, diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic insisting that others have been replaced by dummies, robots, etc. Psychodynamic explanations will be reviewed before neuropsychiatric data are discussed. The advantages of a cognitive neuropsychiatric data are discussed. The advantages of a cognitive neuropsychiatric approach will be outlined and a variety of theoretical explanations for Capgras Syndrome will be detailed. Some of the predictions made by these hypotheses will be highlighted and the results of recent pilot work will be given. The tentative conclusion from the initial results point to a right hemisphere involvement, and their implications for the theoretical analyses of Joseph (1986) and Cutting (1990) will be discussed.