{"id":15187,"date":"2020-09-19T00:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T04:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=15187"},"modified":"2026-01-22T21:34:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T01:34:05","slug":"capgras-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Capgras Disorder: Seeing Impostors in Your Family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is Capgras disorder? What happens in Capgras syndrome cases?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Capgras disorder is a condition in which people think that their family members are impostors. These delusions may be caused by damage to the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Susannah exhibiting signs of Capgras disorder in <em>Brain on Fire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-susannah-cahalan-and-capgras-disorder\">Susannah Cahalan and Capgras Disorder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Patients with \u201cCapgras disorder\u201d suffer from delusions that family members are impostors. Capgras syndrome cases were originally thought to be indications of schizophrenia. Doctors now believe it can be caused by neurobiological damage, as well as other conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Susannah is admitted to NYU Langone\u2019s Advanced Monitoring Unit (AMU), for patients with severe epilepsy. It has been ten days since her first seizure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the AMU, patients are monitored 24 hours a day via electrodes implanted in their brains and two cameras over each bed\u2014physical and electrical evidence of seizure activity. The hospital discards most of the footage, keeping only seizures and abnormal events. These recordings will be crucial to Susannah\u2019s reconstruction of her illness once it has passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-susannah-s-father-an-impostor\">Susannah&#8217;s Father: An Impostor?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>During her first few hours on the floor, Susannah is fitted with electrodes and given a little pink backpack holding her own EEG monitor. Allen arrives, and Susannah screams at the nurses to get him out of her room. She does the same when her father arrives, telling a neurologist that he\u2019s playing tricks on her and is not her father but an impostor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That evening, a neurologist comes to Susannah\u2019s room to conduct a health history. Susannah accurately conveys information about her health but also tells the neurologist that her dad is changing into different people to play tricks on her. \u201cUnclear if hallucinating,\u201d the neurologist diagnoses. Later that night, Susannah is convinced that someone is watching her in the bathroom. She calls her mom, telling her that the nurses are trying to hurt her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a nurse enters the room to tell Susannah not to use the phone, Susannah has another hallucination\u2014she \u201chears\u201d the nurse saying, without moving her lips, \u201cI see you on the news.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Later that night, Susannah makes her first escape attempt.<\/strong> A group of nurses catch her as she dashes from her room. They return her, kicking and screaming, to her bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Capgras disorder? What happens in Capgras syndrome cases? Capgras disorder is a condition in which people think that their family members are impostors. These delusions may be caused by damage to the brain. Read more about Susannah exhibiting signs of Capgras disorder in Brain on Fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,12],"tags":[130],"class_list":["post-15187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-relationships","tag-brain-on-fire","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Capgras Disorder: Seeing Impostors in Your Family - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Capgras disorder is a condition where people think their family members are impostors. Susannah Cahalan had these delusions. 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Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-19T04:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-23T01:34:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/brain-on-fire-capgras-1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1681\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Capgras Disorder: Seeing Impostors in Your Family\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-19T04:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-23T01:34:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/\"},\"wordCount\":387,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/brain-on-fire-capgras-1-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Brain on Fire\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Relationships\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/\",\"name\":\"Capgras Disorder: Seeing Impostors in Your Family - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/capgras-disorder\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/brain-on-fire-capgras-1-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-19T04:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-23T01:34:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Capgras disorder is a condition where people think their family members are impostors. 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