Jean Marie Joseph Capgras (23 August 1873 – 27 January 1950) was a French
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
who is best known for the
Capgras delusion, a disorder named after him.
He received his medical degree in
Toulouse, later working in several mental institutions in France. During the latter part of his career, he was associated with Hôpital Sainte-Anne.
With his mentor,
Paul Sérieux
Paul Sérieux (; 1864–1947) was a French psychiatrist who was a native of Paris.
He practiced medicine in several French hospitals and asylums during his career, including the Asylum of Ville-Evrard and the hospital of Sainte-Anne. He also w ...
(1864–1947), he contributed on psychiatric publications such as ''Les Folies raisonnantes'' (1909) (“Reasoning madnesses. Misinterpretative delusional states”) and '' Les Psychoses à base d'interprétations délirantes''. With Sérieux, he described a type of non-schizophrenic, paranoid
psychosis referred to as ''
Délire d’interprétation de Sérieux et Capgras''.
Capgras delusion was described in 1923 in a study published by Capgras and his intern Jean Reboul-Lachaux, titled ''L'illusion des "sosies" (the illusion of doubles') dans un délire systématisé chronique''. This disorder is defined as a delusion that a close relative or friend has been replaced by an impostor.
Capgras' delusion
at Who Named It
Notes
References
* Postel J, Allen DF. Joseph Capgras (1873-1950). ''Psychopathology
Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era.
Biological psychopatholo ...
'' 1994;27:121–122, .
* Sérieux P, Capgras J
''Les Folies rasonnantes''
J.-F. Alcan, 1909.
French psychiatrists
1873 births
1950 deaths
People from Tarn-et-Garonne
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