Some clinical and aetiological aspects of depersonalization with a case report of identical twins.

Abstract

A search of the literature has not revealed a report of the depersonalization syndrome occurring in identical twins, although Palmer (1946) published a report of twins in which one patient was described as suffering from “all round loss of interest with some depression…. His thoughts … milled round in a ceaseless turmoil concerning his loss of contact with people and things. There was some complaint of unreality and loss of sexual desire…. His condition was one of distressed perplexity. The illness had come on gradually.” The second patient had “tried to get his twin brother to ‘pull himself together,’ when one Saturday he became intoxicated and for a wager attempted bestiality. He woke up next morning feeling unutterably guilty and depressed, and rapidly developed feelings of unreality. His compelling symptom was the fear that his mind was disintegrating.”These cases appear essentially depressive and progressed to a woeful, hypochondriacal state six years later.