Capgras Syndrome

Capgras syndrome is also referred to as impostor syndrome or Capgras delusion. People with this condition falsely believe that someone they know has been substituted by an impostor. There are also accounts of patients who believed that nonhumans such as animals, objects, and even buildings were posing as their real counterparts. For instance, a person with this irrational belief accuses his own daughter as an impostor of his daughter. Some of the causes include dementia, schizophrenia, brain injury, and epilepsy. This syndrome is named after Jean Marie Joseph Capgras, a French psychiatrist. Capgras and his intern, Jean Reboul-Lachaux, described the disorder in a study which was published in 1923.