Characteristics of Capgras Syndrome

You wake up one morning and look into the mirror. Something is different today. You don't recognize yourself. An imposter has taken over your body that is your exact replica. You turn to your spouse only to find yet another impostor. You have Capgras Syndrome and even the family pet may look like an impostor.

Capgras Syndrome was first discovered in 1923, by Jean Marie Joseph Capgras, a French psychiatrist. It is classed as a delusional misidentification syndrome. Capgras Syndrome can occur in acute, transient or chronic forms. A person suffering from Capgras Syndrome believes that a close friend or relative has been replaced by an impostor, an exact double. Often the patients do not recognize their own image. The technical name for this aspect of the syndrome is mirror self-misidentification.

Capgras Syndrome is not the same as a related class of disorders called prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia is characterized by the inability to recognize people's faces, but unlike Capgras Syndrome, it is caused by bilateral lesions in the inferior temporal lobes. These regions of the brain are thought to be partially specialized for face recognition.

There are five characteristics of Capgras Syndrome. 1) The patient believes that someone close to them has been replaced by an identical impostor. 2) The patient sees true and double persons. 3) The patient's delusions can extend to animals and objects. Family pets, chairs, books, lamps or televisions are replaced by exact replicas in the patient's mind. 4) The patient is aware of the abnormal perceptions-they are not hallucinating. 5) When the disease first begins there is a key figure that becomes the "impostor". If the patient is married, the spouse is always this initial key figure.