L. C. Álvaro González
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(3):189-202
Article type: Original
AUTHOR
L. C. Álvaro González
Neurologist, retired. Neurology Department. Hospital de Basurto. Bilbao, Spain. Department of Neuroscience. Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Leioa, Spain.
ABSTRACT
Introduction and objectives. Establishing identity is an essential function of the mind. It enables the identification of one’s own features, enabling differentiation between the self, on the one hand, and other individuals and the environment, on the other. The semiology of identity alterations is well described, with the main examples being delusion of negation of the self (Cotard syndrome) or of others (Capgras syndrome), out-of-body and near-death experiences, and reduplication of the body in the form of specular hallucinations, as in the figure of the double or doppelgänger. These alterations are described in numerous literary genres, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. This study describes these findings.
Methods. Reading of different literary works revealed various discoveries related to these disorders. Relevant findings are extracted, reviewed, and analysed through the lens of neurological semiology.
Results. 1) Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Demons describes a case of Capgras syndrome, 50 years prior to its description by Capgras and Lachaux as l’illusion des sosies. 2) Tolstoy’s The death of Ivan Ilyich describes a near-death experience that is highly suggestive of an out-of-body experience. 3) In the science outreach book The mind of a mnemonist, Alexander Luria describes reduplication of the body produced at will by a real patient. The individual detached his mind from his physical body, thus avoiding pain when visiting the dentist. 4) The plot of The circular ruins, a fantasy short story by Jorge Luis Borges, is based around the creation through dreaming of an individual who will be inserted into reality, with the features of the dreamer. 5) In Guy de Maupassant’s La folle (The mad woman), the protagonist suffers a corporeal abandonment that leads to her death after a clinical syndrome of depression and fever, with ideation about her own death, suggesting Cotard syndrome.
Conclusion. Literary authors described many of these alterations before clinicians, as in the case of Demons and other works cited. These findings enable us to review the history of these disorders and interactions with frontier areas (eg, cultural anthropology, neuropsychology, and philosophy). The richness of the findings is underscored and ideas are proposed to continue in this line of research.
KEYWORDS
Body identity alterations, 19th- and 20th-century literature, Capgras syndrome, Cotard syndrome, out-of-body experiences
Neurosciences and History 2025;13(3):189-202