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Dangerous Delusions

Violence and the Misidentification Syndromes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Karel W. de Pauw  and
T. Krystyna Szulecka
Karel W. de Pauw*
Affiliation:
Leicester General Hospital
T. Krystyna Szulecka
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Basset law District General Hospital, Worksop
*
Psychiatric Department, Leicester General Hospital, Gwendolen Road, Leicester LE5 4PW
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Abstract

Among the mentally ill, those with well-developed delusions are more likely to commit violent crimes against persons than those with chronic, undifferentiated psychoses. Reports of violence associated with delusional misidentification are reviewed and four patients described who were either perpetrators or victims of assaults as a consequence of the syndromes of Frégoli, lntermetamorphosis, Subjective Doubles and Capgras. The cases illustrate the multiplicity of factors which have to be taken into consideration in order to predict whether an individual will act in a violent manner on these delusions.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 91 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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