Rare Delusions
This delusion causes a person to believe a close friend or relative has been replaced by an identical imposter.
What is Capgras syndrome?
This condition causes a distortion of visual perception, making objects appear larger or smaller than their actual size.
What is Alice in Wonderland syndrome?
This disorder involves an irresistible desire to eat things that are not food, such as dirt, paper, or soap.
What is Pica?
This condition is characterized by a person believing they are a cow, and they may even attempt to act like one.
What is boanthropy?
According to some studies, this simple, happy act releases endorphins and can help reduce stress.
What is smiling?
Also known as "walking corpse syndrome," this rare disorder causes a person to believe they are dead, putrefying, or don't exist.
What is Cotard delusion?
The inability to recognize faces, including one's own, even when other visual functions are intact.
What is prosopagnosia?
The name for the intense frustration or anger experienced when struggling to open a sealed package.
What is "wrap rage"?
Also known as de Clérambault syndrome, this is the delusional belief that a person, typically a famous or high-status individual, is in love with you.
What is erotomania?
The term for the positive form of stress that can keep us active and motivated.
What is eustress?
In this delusion, a person believes that a single familiar person, often a persecutor, is masquerading as several other people in their life.
What is Fregoli delusion?
A condition that makes a person feel like their hand is operating with a mind of its own, independent of their will.
What is Alien Hand Syndrome?
This anxiety disorder is defined by an excessive, irrational fear of being too happy, believing a tragic event will follow.
What is cherophobia?
This cultural syndrome describes the intense anxiety and disorientation experienced by some travelers to Paris, often triggered by the idealised image versus the reality.
What is Paris syndrome?
This is the psychological phenomenon where an item's position in a list affects how well it is remembered.
What is the serial position effect?
Named after the city it was first described in, this is the paranoid delusion that one is the subject of harassment from unknown sources, particularly through radio or television.
What is Ekbom syndrome?
Named after an author, this syndrome causes dizziness, disorientation, and panic attacks when exposed to great quantities of art.
What is Stendhal syndrome?
An obsessive-compulsive urge to pull out one's own hair, which can result in noticeable hair loss.
What is trichotillomania?
A condition in which a person is convinced they are, or can transform into, a wolf or other non-human animal.
What is clinical lycanthropy?
This psychological phenomenon refers to the fact that hearing negative information can damage multiple positive memories.
What is the emotional contamination effect?
Named after a French psychiatrist, this delusion involves the conviction that a familiar place has been duplicated and exists in two or more locations simultaneously.
What is reduplicative paramnesia?
This is the psychological phenomenon where a person experiences a physical sensation in one sense in response to a stimulus in another, such as seeing colors when hearing music.
What is synesthesia?
The desire to amputate a healthy limb in order to become disabled, often driven by a feeling that the limb doesn't belong to them.
What is body integrity dysphoria or apotemnophilia?
The extreme form of social withdrawal where individuals, often young people, isolate themselves from society by staying in their homes for months or even years.
What is hikikomori?
This psychological bias causes us to believe that a positive trait in a person means they must possess other positive traits as well.
What is the halo effect?