Imagine looking at someone you’ve known your entire life—your parent, sibling, or partner—and suddenly believing they’ve been replaced by an imposter. They look and act the same, but something in your gut insists they’re a fake. This disturbing psychological phenomenon is known as Capgras delusion, a rare and fascinating condition that challenges our very sense of reality.
Capgras delusion belongs to a group of disorders called delusional misidentification syndromes, where individuals believe familiar people or objects have been replaced or altered in some profound way. In the case of Capgras, the delusion is typically focused on loved ones. It’s not that the person can’t recognize their face—in fact, facial recognition remains intact—but the emotional response to that recognition is missing or distorted. The result? The brain assumes the only logical explanation: this person must be a duplicate.
This delusion was first described in 1923 by French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras, who documented a case where a woman believed her husband had been replaced by identical-looking imposters multiple times. Since then, psychologists and neuroscientists have been intrigued by how the brain can become so disconnected from emotional familiarity, leading to such dramatic and specific false beliefs.
Let’s look at some more facts and research about this delusion tomorrow.
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