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:
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)