According to statistics, one in four people on Earth suffers from a mental or behavioral disorder. We decided to examine the most unusual ones to prove once again how mysterious the human brain is.
6. Quasimodo Syndrome
Quasimodo syndrome, or body dysmorphic disorder, is an extremely dangerous mental disorder, known for obsessive thoughts about a highly exaggerated or even imaginary physical defect.
Patients constantly look at themselves in the mirror, trying to find an angle where the alleged defect is not visible; they refuse to be photographed, to avoid that their inconvenience is captured in an image; taking too much care of appearance; they have problems in love life due to this particular failure; have low self-esteem; they feel strangers in society, suspecting that others perceive the “defect” and laugh at it. Sounds familiar?
The absurdity of this syndrome is revealed in the silent short film Contracuerpo.
5. Erotomania
Those who suffer from erotomania are sure that someone is in love with them, usually someone of a much higher social status (for example, a celebrity).
Patients believe that their imaginary admirers show their attitude towards them through special signals, secret signals, telepathy, and coded messages in the media.
It is difficult to combat the disorder: even if the alleged lover says “no” directly, an erotomanic patient interprets it as part of a secret strategy that hides their relationship from society.
This syndrome arises in the film From the Land of the Moon (Marion Cotillard’s character).
4. Capgras Delusion
This syndrome makes the patient believe that someone close to them or they themselves have been replaced by a doppelganger.
The patient can claim that the bad deeds attributed to them were committed by their double, who looks exactly like them. This disorder is often accompanied by schizophrenia.
The feature film The Double, based on the homonymous novel by F. M. Dostoyevsky, reveals the essence of this disorder.
3. Fregoli Delusion
In this case, the patient believes exactly the opposite: under the mask of strangers or surrounding people hides someone close to them, constantly putting on makeup and changing their appearance for the purpose of pursuit.
The syndrome was first described in 1927: a young woman believed that she was being chased by two actors in the theater she used to visit, taking the form of people she knew or met.
This theme is partially revealed in the animated film Anomalisa.
2. Adele Syndrome
Adele syndrome is an obsession that causes the person to experience pathological love affection. Doctors recently recognized it as a mental disorder that seriously threatens a person’s health and life, comparing it to gambling, alcoholism, and kleptomania.
Symptoms of the disease resemble deep depression, but they can be much more dangerous: persecution of a person, self-deception, illusions, voluntary self-sacrifice, ignoring the advice of friends or other close people, reckless actions, and loss of interest in others topics and activities.
You can see The Story of Adele H, a movie about the syndrome and the young woman it was named after.
1. Cryptomnesia
Cryptomnesia is a type of memory deficiency in which a person cannot remember when a particular event occurred or if it was a dream or reality, for example, if they wrote a poem or simply remembered something they had read.
In other words, the source of the information is ignored and the person cannot determine whether the idea belongs to them or to someone else.
This syndrome usually accompanies the phenomenon of “jamais vu“, as opposed to “deja vu”, when the feeling suddenly arises that a place or a familiar person seems completely unknown or unusual, as if it were being seen for the first time.
In the photo, you can see a fragment of The Science of Sleep.
