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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2008, 256 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2009, 256 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Lucia Silva
Capgras Syndrome
The idea of simulacrum, or impostors, has long been a subject of fascination in
fiction, and Capgras syndrome, or variations on its symptoms, often crop up in
short stories and novels. Most recently,
The Echo Maker by Richard Powers revolves around a character who suffers
from Capgras syndrome after he suffers a head injury in a car accident.
While the unreliable narrator of Atmospheric Disturbances is
constantly evaluating and analyzing himself, he does so with increasingly
suspect reasoning, and never touches on the obvious psychological cause for his
belief that his wife has been replaced by an impostor.
Capgras syndrome, or Capgras delusion is a rare disorder in which the afflicted
person recognizes all the physical features of another human being, usually a
family member or close friend, but believes that the person they're seeing is an
identical impostor. The French psychiatrist Jean Marie Joseph Capgras first
described the disease in 1923, after treating a Madame M. who believed her
entire family had been replaced by impostors. In some cases, the person believes
that he is himself a double, or that a limb or other part of their body has been
replaced by an identical part.
While it sounds like a paranoid disorder, it can present itself without any
other delusional beliefs - the individual is simply at a loss and cannot be
convinced. The afflicted individual usually acknowledges the preposterous nature
of their perception, but cannot reconcile the person they see with the person
they know. As strongly as you know your mother is your mother or your husband is
your husband, a person suffering from Capgras knows that the person before them
is not the person they're pretending to be. They often believe that the impostor
is a benign figure, perhaps even unaware that they are an impostor.
Capgras syndrome is most often diagnosed as a symptom of a larger disorder or
condition, such as schizophrenia, dementia, or a head injury. An
early hypothesis suggests that it was caused by the same impairment that causes
prosopagnosia, a condition that renders a person unable to consciously recognize
faces. A patient suffering from prosopagnosia produces an unconscious emotional
response to the image of a face, but exhibits no conscious recognition. Thus, it
has been hypothesized that Capgras syndrome could result from the opposite of
prosopagnosia, as the individual consciously recognizes faces, but exhibits no
emotional response, either conscious or subconscious. Scientists have also
hypothesized that the syndrome results from a disconnect between the temporal
cortex, where faces are recognized, and the limbic system, which supports
emotions. Other research suggests that this disconnect must be accompanied by
some impairment in reasoning, or some other secondary factor that would
transform it from a simple disconnect into a delusion.
Psychoanalysts have interpreted Capgras as a form of displacement in which the patient creates a
double for their loved one so that they may be safely rejected when negative
feelings or attributes arise, helping him or her to negotiate changes in close
relationships without guilt.
This article was originally published in July 2008, and has been updated for the
April 2009 paperback release.
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