Posted by alexandra_k on August 17, 2005, at 18:32:47
Some people say that they are dead. People who maintain they are dead are considered to have the Cotard delusion which was named after Jules Cotard a French neurologist who first described the condition in 1880. While the disorder is fairly rare other cases have been reported since then. The claim ‘I am dead’ is thought to be a paradigmatic example of a delusional utterance. While we can imagine contexts in which this might not seem so strange, some people are reported to have insisted that they really are dead. One lady was even reported to have persuaded her family to go out and buy her a coffin.
What I am going to do in this seminar is to talk about some of the theories that have been offered of delusions in general and of what might be going on in the Cotard delusion in particular. In the last part of the seminar I will offer an alternative account of what might be going on for most people with the Cotard delusion and then I shall have a brief look at some of the implications of this for treatment.
Before I get properly underway I want draw your attention to the point that while delusions are typically considered to be beliefs I will focus on offering an explanation of the delusional subjects utterance ‘I am dead’. It is because people make utterances such as these that they are classified as being delusional and so I shall focus on an explanation of the delusional utterance. Other theorists are not so explicit about this distinction, they grant that delusions are beliefs and go on to offer accounts of how the delusional subject could come to believe such a crazy thing. Although I ultimately accept the view that delusions are beliefs I want to focus on delusional utterance so as not to beg the question with respect to what the belief is that the delusional subject is trying to express with their utterance.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:543149
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20050807/msgs/543149.html