Capgras Syndrome fascinates me. I first heard about it on NPR a few weeks ago.
Here’s the deal: A person with Capgras Syndrome believes that someone (or several someones) close to them has been replaced with an imposter. Generally it occurs due to severe brain injury or schizophrenia.
Example: Mary is married to Bob. Mary sustains a head injury in a car wreck. After the wreck, Mary is convinced that the man living in her house is not Bob, even though he looks and sounds exactly like Bob. One theory is that Mary’s conscious ability to recognize her husband is intact, but the part of her brain that produces an emotional response is damaged. Mary knows that the man looks like her husband, but she doesn’t feel like he is her husband.
