Capgras Delusion - History

History

The Capgras delusion is named after Joseph Capgras (1873–1950), a French psychiatrist who first described the disorder in 1923 in his paper co-authored by Reboul-Lachaux, on the case of a French woman who complained that corresponding "doubles" had taken the places of her husband and other people she knew.

Their term l'illusion des « sosies »...—which can be literally translated as "the illusion of 'doubles'..."—finds some modern professional use in French (e.g. "L’illusion des sosies de Capgras est...", which however its authors render in English as "Capgras’ syndrome is ..."). But the distinction between illusion and delusion is important in modern technical English, and the Capgras syndrome is clearly a delusional condition.

Read more about this topic:  Capgras Delusion

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.
    Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)

    The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)

    A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)