Do you ever have one of those days when you just don’t feel like yourself?
The cause could be anything, really. Maybe you didn’t sleep well, or you had a bad dream. Perhaps you’re feeling a bit under the weather, coming down with a cold, or something. Or it could be that you have been waiting and waiting for the catalog order of your new red rubber galoshes, and they have yet to show up. No matter the cause — the “you” inside simply doesn’t feel like “you.”
But what about me?
Let’s say I don’t think you seem quite like yourself anymore. Maybe, because I’ve known you for years, and it used to be that when you smiled, the left side of your mouth tilted upward. And it doesn’t anymore. Or the fact that you used to hate Brussels sprouts, but now, all of a sudden, you’ve started eating them. Heck, you ordered that fried kind with the bacon grease last Tuesday at Elmore’s Steak and Seafood. I’ve noticed your socks don’t match anymore, either.
Well, let me tell you about Capgras Delusion.
It is a real disease. Capgras Delusion is when a person thinks someone they know has been replaced by an imposter.
Oh. We’ve seen it in the movies. In fact, several films have played on the human fear of impostors. Movies like The Talented Mr. Ripley, Single White Female, or even Gattaca. But in real life, that fear of an imposter can be incredibly pervasive. So much so, that a version of it is classified as a delusional disorder.
So yes. The Capgras Delusion, which is also called Capgras Syndrome, involves someone believing that an identical impostor has replaced a family member or friend.
The disorder has been around for a little while. The French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras first identified the condition with his colleague Jean Reboul-Lachaux in 1923. They were treating a woman who transformed everyone in her closest circle into some sort of imposter. Her friends. Her children. Her husband. All fakes, she thought. The woman reported to authorities that her husband had disappeared and that a double was sent in his place. She wanted to divorce the fake man, this guy pretending to be her husband.
I have no idea how it turned out for that woman, but today, the syndrome is a relatively rare condition that has many causes.
The Capgras Delusion can occur in conjunction with stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, subarachnoid hemorrhage, vitamin B12 deficiency, hepatic encephalopathy, hypothyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, epilepsy, and dementia.
Uh. B-12 deficiency?
I don’t take B-12.
Perhaps I better eat more eggs.
Because I’m pretty sure you used to part your hair on the other side. I think.
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“Fake people have an image to maintain. Real people just don’t care.” – Hachiman Hikigaya
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“A person’s character is shown through their actions in life NOT where they sit on Sunday.”
–Navonne Johns
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“Life is too short for fake butter or fake people.”
– Karen Salmansohn
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You used to wear blue glasses, didn’t you?
