Fregoli Syndrome Research Articles

What role do the emotions play in cognition?

This paper has two aims: (1) to point the way towards a novel alternative to cognitive theories of emotion, and (2) to delineate a number of different functions that the emotions play in cognition, functions that become visible from outside the framework of cognitive theories. First, I hold that the Higher Order Representational (HOR) theories of consciousness — as generally formulated — are inadequate insofar as they fail to account for selective attention. After posing this dilemma, I resolve it in such a manner that the following thesis arises: the emotions play a key role in shaping selective attention. This thesis is in accord with A. Damasio’s (1994) noteworthy neuroscientific work on emotion. I then begin to formulate an alternative to cognitive theories of emotion, and I show how this new account has implications for the following issues: face recognition, two brain disorders (Capgras’ and Fregoli syndrome), the frame problem in A.I., and the research program of affective computing.

Réflexions sur le statut de la mythomanie délirante

Delusional mythomania is nowadays an underestimated issue. This author retraces the evolution of the concept from the beginning of the XIXth century to present times. Initially envisaged under the guise of megalomania, it was first seen as a subspecies of monomania, untill it underwent several attempts of integretion as a specific moment of the psychotic process. In the 1880’s, there was a heated debate at the Société Médico-psychologique in Paris between the supporters of Valentin Magnan’s “délire chronique à évolution systématique” who claimed that megalomania was a defense against persécution and the instrument of systematization that unmistakably preluded to final dementia, and on the other side clinicians like Mairet or Foville who claimed that in many cases no relationship could be evidenced between persecution and megalomania, and that the latter could usually be found at any moment of the psychotic process. At the end of the XIXth century, the discussions of psychotic mythomania within the German school mainly focussed on its relationship with memory errors. In his attempted systematization, Dupré described a “mechanism of imagination” which he separated from hallucinations and delusional interpretations. Nevertheless, neither he nor Kraepelin (paraphrenia) managed to derive a clear-cut clinical entity out of that. At the beginning of the XXth century, several syndromes were described that were clearly identified with psychotic mythomania: the Capgras syndrome, the Fregoli syndrome, and the intermetamorphosis syndrome, all of which were described as non-specific body-image disorders within various psychotic processes, rather than as independent disorders. Finally, this writer proposes to consider that delusional mythomania should be seen as an attempt by psychotic patients to describe the jouissance de l’Autre, such as it has been characterized by Lacan in his last seminars.

Delusional misidentifications. Symptoms and neuropsychological models

Delusional misidentifications include the Capgras delusion, Fregoli delusion, the delusion of subjective doubles and other less frequent symptoms. A common denominator of these unspecific psychopathological symptoms is the patients' denial of their identity or the convinction that their identity or the identity of relatives has been altered. These delusional symptoms occur in the context of somatic and mental diseases, most frequently in schizophrenia and dementia. According to neuropsychological and neuroanatomical studies delusional misidentifications are facilitated by lesions of the temporo-limbic system leading to an impairment in the affective recognition and reality control. Patients suffering from delusional misidentifications have a higher risk of aggressive behaviour which emphasises their clinical relevance.

Cognitive neuropsychiatry: potential for progress.

Cognitive neuropsychiatry: potential for progress.

The Evolution of Spontaneous Confabulation, Delusional Misidentification and a Related Delusion in a Case of Severe Head Injury

Abstract We describe a young woman who suffered a severe head injury, resulting in pathology to the right ventro-medial and polar frontal cortex with some involvement of the left ventro-medial and the right dorso-lateral regions as well. There was also a small infarct in the corona radiata of the right parietal lobe. The patient showed fleeting confabulations, succeeded by a more stable Fregoli (misidentification) delusion, followed in turn by the deluded belief that a nephew was inhabiting the hospital. These psychiatric features arose in the context of severe memory, perceptual and executive dysfunctions, which outlasted the abnormal beliefs by several months. The findings are interpreted in terms of changes in the executive ‘specification’ and ‘verification’ of memories through time. It is argued that neuropsychological theories of phenomena such as spontaneous confabulation and delusional misidentification need to take account not only of the presence of particular lesions associated with ‘static’ cognitive deficits, but also of ‘dynamic’ changes through time as these abnormal ideas emerge, evolve and wane.

The evolution of spontaneous confabulation, delusional misidentification and a related delusion in a case of severe head injury

We describe a young woman who suffered a severe head injury, resulting in pathology to the right ventro-medial and polar frontal cortex with some involvement of the left ventro-medial and the right dorso-lateral regions as well. There was also a small infarct in the corona radiata of the right parietal lobe. The patient showed fleeting confabulations, succeeded by a more stable Fregoli (misidentification) delusion, followed in turn by the deluded belief that a nephew was inhabiting the hospital. These psychiatric features arose in the context of severe memory, perceptual and executive dysfunctions, which outlasted the abnormal beliefs by several months. The findings are interpreted in terms of changes in the executive ‘specification’ and ‘verification’ of memories through time. It is argued that neuropsychological theories of phenomena such as spontaneous confabulation and delusional misidentification need to take account not only of the presence of particular lesions associated with ‘static’ cognitive deficits, but also of ‘dynamic’ changes through time as these abnormal ideas emerge, evolve and wane.

Homo‐erotomania for a delusional parent: erotomania with Capgras and Fregoli syndromes in a young male with learning difficulties

A 19-year-old male with learning difficulties exhibited erotomania associated with first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia; the subject responded to neuroleptic medication. The love object was a male neighbour believed by the subject to be his father. This is the first recorded case where erotic desire has been coupled with the delusion that the object is also the parent of the sufferer. We propose a multifactorial aetiology, considering the possibility of complex psychodynamics in the presence of learning difficulties.

Delusional misidentification syndromes in a woman with mild learning disabilities

AbstractSchizophrenia is thought to be the commonest setting in which delusional misidentification syndromes occur. Although schizophrenia is said to occur more commonly in people with learning disabilities, when compared to the general population, reports of delusional misidentification syndromes are extremely limited. The case of a 31 year old woman with mild learning disabilities and first episode of acute schizophrenia is described. She had both Capgras and Fregoli syndromes, and a rare variant of Capgras syndrome in which the misidentification was of a cat, rather than a significant person in her life. Aetiological factors are discussed.

Homo-erotomania for a delusional parent: erotomania with Capgras and Fregoli syndromes in a young male with learning difficulties

Homo-erotomania for a delusional parent: erotomania with Capgras and Fregoli syndromes in a young male with learning difficulties

Visual Processing in Patients with Fregoli Syndrome

We investigated four paranoid schizophrenic patients diagnosed with Frégoli delusion, and four matched psychotic controls. Neuropsychological testing included visual and verbal recognition memory, in addition to a comparison of left and right hemispheric processing of two different classes of stimuli, animate and inanimate objects. Performance on the recognition memory test failed to discriminate between the two psychotic groups on the basis of facial recognition, however, the patients with Frégoli delusion failed to show the right hemisphere processing advantage for the animate class of stimuli found for the set of norms and also present in the psychotic control group. These results are discussed in the context of both current theories of the delusional misidentification syndromes in general, and models of facial recognition in particular.

Delusional misidentification syndromes: a descriptive study.

Twenty-three patients with one or more delusional misidentification syndromes were studied. The majority of the subjects were females and the Capgras syndrome was the most common delusional misidentification syndrome in our sample. The Capgras syndrome cases were significant older than the Fregoli syndrome cases. Schizophrenia and schizo-affective psychosis were significantly associated with Fregoli syndrome. Discriminant function analysis was carried out on the sample and showed that age and symptoms of nuclear schizophrenia were the variables most predictive of the type of delusional misidentification. These findings are discussed in the light of current literature.

The life of Leopoldo Fregoli

The Fregoli delusion is one of a number of misidentification syndromes. It is characterised by a patient recognising a familiar person, usually seen as a persecutor, in various strangers who, although they do not show physical resemblance, are believed to be psychologically identical to the familiar person. It usually occurs in the context of a schizophrenic illness but has been reported in affective disorders and organic psycho-syndromes (Förstl et al, 1991). It was first described by the French authors Courbon & Fail in 1927, who used the term ‘Fregoli illusion’ after the Italian actor who enjoyed enormous popular success on the Paris stage at the time. It has also been called the ‘illusion of negative doubles'. However, as the psychopathology is a delusional interpretation of normal visual stimuli rather than an abnormal perception the terms Fregoli delusion or ‘delusional hyper-identification of the Fregoli type’ are preferable. The original case description has recently been translated and annotated (Ellis et al 1994) but there remains little background information available on the figure of Fregoli himself. Biographies have appeared in French and Italian but there are few English language references and this paper is intended to provide an account of the life and career of one of the most extraordinary entertainers in theatre history.

Capgras, Fregoli and Cotard's syndromes and Koro in folie à deux

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Fregoli Syndrome

Fregoli syndrome is the delusional belief that one or more familiar persons, usually persecutors following the patient, repeatedly change their appearance. This syndrome has often been discussed as a variant of the Capgras syndrome in the literature, but these two syndromes have different phenomenological structures and age and sex distributions. The author presents a review of 34 cases of Fregoli syndrome in the English and French language literature, discussing the syndrome's definition, aetiology and course. It is suggested that although an organic substrate may be found in some cases, it is the dominant psychotic theme which determines the content of the syndrome.

The Fregoli syndrome and cannabis delusional disorder

AbstractA case of the Fregoli syndrome in a patient meeting the DSM-III-R criteria for Cannabis Delusional Disorder is presented. It appears to the authors, after reviewing the literature on the subject, that the delusion ascribed to the Fregoli syndrome, which occurs mainly in Schizophrenia, is being noted in a slowly widening group of psychotic disorders, of which Cannabis Delusional Disorder is the latest.

Frégoli Syndrome of the Self

Frégoli Syndrome of the Self

Psychiatric, neurological and medical aspects of misidentification syndromes: a review of 260 cases

Two hundred and sixty case reports of misidentification syndromes were evaluated. One hundred and seventy-four patients had a Capgras syndrome misidentifying other persons, 18 a Fregoli syndrome, 11 intermetamorphosis, 17 reduplicative paramnesia and the rest had other forms or combinations of mistaken identification. Schizophrenia (127 cases), mostly of paranoid type, affective disorder (29), and organic mental syndromes including dementia (46) were the most common diagnoses in patients who misidentified others or themselves. The patients with reduplicative paramnesia more frequently suffered from head trauma or cerebral infarction and showed more features of right hemisphere lesions on neuropsychological testing or CT scan than the patients with other misidentification syndromes. Forty-one case-reports implicated underlying medical conditions. Forty-six of the patients were reported to show violent behaviour. The misidentification of persons can be a manifestation of any organic or functional psychosis, but the misidentification of place is frequently associated with neurological diseases, predominantly of the right hemisphere. Misidentification syndromes show a great degree of overlap and do not represent distinctive syndromes nor can they be regarded as an expression of a particular disorder. These patients deserve special diagnostic and therapeutic attention because of the possible underlying disorders and their potentially dangerous behaviour.

Fregoli's syndrome

Fregoli's syndrome