Kapgra syndrome is a fairly rare mental illness. People suffering from this deviation are sure that a specific person from his close environment is replaced by a double. Suspicion can fall on mom, brother, children. In addition, in some cases, the patient convinces people of the existence of his own double, who, according to him, is guilty of performing actions allegedly on his behalf.
The essence of the disease
Mental disorder is named after a famous French doctor. It was Jean Marie Joseph Capgra who first noticed this deviation in his patients, identified and described it. The psychiatrist observed how a particular individual accuses his comrade of being an impostor. Very often, he recorded such cases among notorious workaholics who, due to chronic fatigue and constant stress, accused their business partners or colleagues of being fake.
Kapgra syndrome is otherwise called delusional identification. In the scientific literature, it is also known as the illusion of a negative double. Experienced experts say that the sick person’s bizarre behavior is sometimes accompanied by the belief that a
close relative, such as a spouse, is stolen by aliens and replaced by an exact copy of it. Comments about the fact that a woman still has the same appearance, habits, character, behavior and speech characteristics, he is not impressive and does not affect perception. Conversely, they may aggravate the symptoms. A person begins to think that he lives in a whole world of twins, and a doctor is no exception.
Clinical picture
Kapgra syndrome is a paranoid obsessive condition. It is of two types:
- The man is sure that in front of him is a double. He sees him, speaks with him, argues with his opponent, can touch him and so on. He shows it to the doctor, that is, the object is visible to everyone without exception.
- The patient physically does not see the twin. But at the same time he constantly feels his presence nearby. In this case, the double remains invisible not only to him, but also to society.
What is most interesting: a patient's suspicion can fall not only on a specific personality, but also on an animal or object. Hallucinations in a personality disorder are not observed. Often a person even realizes that he is sick and his perception of reality is abnormal, false. Doctors noticed that women are more susceptible to the disease. Sometimes it is accompanied by schizophrenia or trauma to the posterior region of the right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for recognizing the faces of people and inanimate objects.
Case studies
As already mentioned, Kapgra syndrome manifests itself as an accusation of people that they are doubles, or naming themselves as such. Psychiatrists claim that spouses most often come under open suspicion. A woman, tired of family life, suffering a tyrant husband, suffering from postpartum depression, having lost a child as a result of the tragic events, refuses to go to bed allegedly with an impostor. She locks herself in her room with a key, buys a gun to protect herself. In this case, she knows the other members of the family perfectly. The reason for this behavior is not only the circumstances described above, but also various injuries and neuroses.
If the patient is confident in the existence of his own double, then he ascribes to him all his bad deeds. Sometimes he even deliberately cheats, not remembering this. Very often, the patient accuses his parents of abandoning his twin brother in infancy, sending him for adoption to another country. Now he has grown up and wants to “recruit” the patient, make him responsible for his crimes or other misconduct. By the way, this deviation is accompanied by serious
mental illnesses and conditions, therefore it is often called not a syndrome, but a symptom of one or another ailment.
Symptoms
Kapgra syndrome begins to progress after 30 years of age. Prior to this, he may be in a sleeping, or latent, state. Although science knows cases when teenagers or even children fell ill. For example, in psychiatry, a case is described when the first signs of an illness appeared in a 15-year-old girl. She was sitting in a cafe with her brother and father and suddenly announced that narcotic substances were being added to her food. Already at a medical institution, she mistook her mother for an impostor, and called a night orderly a father, who came only to inflict physical and mental suffering on her.
From this we can conclude that absolutely unexpectedly, a person develops Capgra syndrome. Symptoms, in addition to confusion between people and doubles, are manifested in the form of aggressive behavior. Firstly, a person is angry because they do not believe him. Secondly, he is furious because of an imaginary threat. Afraid of someone or something, he can also become neurotic, intimidated, cautious, depressive and lethargic. Thirdly, the patient begins to use violence against close relatives. Sometimes it even comes to the killing of all relatives and subsequent suicide.
Reasons for the appearance
The clinical picture is described in detail by world-famous psychiatrists. They professionally studied Kapgra syndrome: photos of complex patients, videos of the most delusional monologues by them were analyzed in detail, the correct conclusions were made. Instead, the causes of the disease are still obscure and not fully understood. They say that the main impetus is damage to the back of the right hemisphere of the brain, which controls the recognition and recognition of the appearance of people, the appearance of objects. This can result in severe head injury or an unsuccessful operation.
Another hypothesis states that the appearance of the syndrome has a psychological rather than a physical basis. That is, very strong stress experienced by the patient can lead to this. Often the disease begins to progress much later than the tragedy. That is, after an accident, it may take several months, years, even decades, before the syndrome begins to develop. Some psychiatrists admit that the tendency to ailment is still in the bosom of the mother. Others argue: it becomes the result of a difficult childhood or authoritarian upbringing.
The main forms of the syndrome
Doctors say that mentally unstable individuals are especially prone to this ailment. In addition, they distinguish several forms of the disease:
- Fregoli's syndrome. This is a "mirror" version of the disorder described above, when the patient "recognizes" his relatives in strangers. Kapgra and Fregoli syndrome are very similar in their essence and manifestations.
- The incubus phenomenon is a mental disorder, when the patient begins to assure that during night dreams he comes into sexual contact with an imaginary lover.
- The phenomenon of delusional hermaphroditism. Described in 1999. For the first time he was found in a young man who tried to convince physicians that he was the object of persecution of a literary character, instilling in the people around him.
Some patients say that another person lives in the middle of them, who speaks with them, controls their actions and even drinks all the juices of life. Other patients mention microorganisms with which they are allegedly infected.
Can the disease be cured?
It all depends on what Kapgra syndrome developed on the basis of. For example, if he was found in a patient already suffering from schizophrenia, then he can be quickly helped. Properly prescribed medications suppress even a very anxious state, constantly arising fears and suspicions. If a head injury became the cause of the syndrome, for some time the doctors did not prescribe treatment for the syndrome, giving the brain the opportunity to adjust its work itself. In most cases, gray matter itself suppresses the imaginary images that arise in his imagination.
As for the experienced stresses, in this case it is quite difficult to heal the patient. Having survived a tragic event, he is so locked in his fictional world that it is not easy to reach it. Moreover, he himself does not want to be "extracted" from the depths of fantasy. Despite this, the prescribed psychotropic therapy helps to control the condition, making a person safe for society. After all, obsessed with constant paranoid fears, he is able to do great harm not only to his family, but also to many other people. Such patients are potential killers, maniacs and terrorists.
Therapy
Its duration depends on the severity, form of the disease, its neglect. The following can be argued: almost always, doctors help the patient forget what Kapgra syndrome is. Treatment can last several years, but there are times when the patient gets rid of the disease in just ten weeks. In any case, the doctor weighs all the features of the disease in a particular person and prescribes him individual therapy. For example, antiepileptic drugs help eliminate a delusional state.
Treatment can also be aimed at establishing mental stability. She must resist the false system of error. In these cases, cognitive methods are very effective, which include testing perception of reality and reframing - procedures aimed at rethinking reality, restructuring thinking in order to eliminate incorrect mental patterns. With relative success, antipsychotics and other therapeutic methods and agents can also be used.