Who Are You, My Loved One? Capgras Delusion in Schizophrenia

In the last decades, Capgras syndrome, also known as delusion of doubles, have received wide attention from psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, and philosophers. It can be considered a model case in which the mechanisms of delusion formation and maintenance are particularly evident, since it is typically a very limited, i.e., monothe- matic, delusion. The syndrome can occur in both organic and functional disorders. In this paper I will focus on Capgras delusion in schizophrenia. My claim is that Capgras syndrome, when occurring in this mental disorder, takes on qualitatively different connotations because it fits into a framework characterized by a pre-existing loss of familiarity. This characteristic of schizophrenia makes this mental disorder particu- larly amenable for delusions of misidentification such as Capgras syndrome.