Cotard syndrome: symptoms, causes and characteristics.

A mental disorder that exposes the complexity of the brain.

Cotard's Syndrome is one of the strangest psychological disorders, not least because it is difficult to put oneself in the shoes of those who experience it first hand.It is one of the strangest psychological disorders, among other things because it is difficult to put oneself in the shoes of the person who experiences it first-hand.

Because the symptoms of this phenomenon are neither defined by personality changes, nor by sensory or motor disturbances, nor are they rooted in extreme mood swings. Instead, it is all based on a sensation: the feeling of having died.

In this article we will see what Cotard Syndrome is, what are its symptoms, and what are its possible causes, among other things.

What is Cotard Syndrome?

It is quite common to think that people interpret reality only from the data that reach us directly through the senses. According to this point of view, when we see a rectangular body from whose corners descend four extensions, we conclude that what we are looking at is a table, provided that we have previously learned that concept.

The same would be true for landscapes, people and animals: we would perceive each of these physical elements through our senses and we would automatically identify them through our senses. automatically identify them, cleanly and predictably, in aWe would perceive each of these physical elements through our senses and identify them automatically, in a clean and predictable way, as long as we did not lack data. The truth is that, although most of the time there is a very clear relationship between the raw data that comes to us through our senses and what we interpret as real, this is not always the case. The strange Cotard's Syndrome is an example of this.

Cotard's Syndrome is a mental disorder in which the subject perceives himself as something that does not perceives himself as something that, in a certain way, does not exist or is separated from reality. or is separated from reality.

People with this syndrome are capable of sensory perception of their own body (for example, they can see themselves in a mirror, as can all people without vision impairment) but they perceive it as something strange, as if they did not exist. A significant number of people with Cotard's Syndrome, for example, believe they are dead, literally or figuratively, believe themselves to be dead, literally or figurativelyor in a state of decomposition. This is not a metaphorical way of saying how they feel, but a strong belief, which is taken literally.

This is a psychological phenomenon similar to depersonalization, in which one experiences a disconnection between oneself and everything else. a disconnection between oneself and everything else.. The disturbance appears in the way in which what is perceived through the senses is experienced emotionally, not in the way in which the senses provide information. Technically, everything that is seen, heard, touched and tasted or smelled seems to be true, but is not felt as true.

In Cotard's Syndrome, this emotional disconnection goes hand in hand with a more specific idea that is a pseudo-explanation for what one feels: one is dead oneself, and therefore the person with this disorder no longer has a strong interest in remaining connected to the world.

Symptoms

Although this picture of symptoms can be called nihilistic deliriumIt has nothing to do with the philosophical or attitudinal positioning of the person. Someone with Cotard Syndrome tends to sincerely believe that the plane of reality in which their body is located is not the same plane in which their conscious mind is located, and they act accordingly.

What people with Cotard's Syndrome experience is very similar to the way some people strongly influenced by a particular culture or religion may come to think about their body, other people, and the environment they inhabit; the difference is that people with the syndrome perceive things this way always, regardless of the context, because of an abnormal functioning of some of their brain structures..

Cotard's Syndrome gets its name from the French neurologist Jules Cotard, who at the end of the 19th century coined the term Denial Syndrome to describe the case of a woman who believed she was dead and had all her internal organs rotten. This person, believing that he was suspended somewhere between Heaven and Hell, did not think it necessary to eat, since the planet Earth had lost all meaning for him.

The fundamental idea is derealization

The concept of derealization implies the idea of perceiving the data that reach us about the environment as something alien to the reality of the person who receives them. alien to the reality of the perceiver.. It refers to a psychological phenomenon that appears in certain psychological disorders (not exclusively in Cotard's Syndrome), as well as in specific moments that do not constitute an indication of psychopathology.

You may experience something similar, for example, if you place one of your hands in front of your eyes in a dimly lit room. You will see the silhouette of one of your body parts, which is something you have already memorized throughout your life, and you will notice that its movements correspond to what you want it to do. However, darkness can cause that, although all the data you have about the hand correspond to what you associate with your own body, you have the feeling that the hand is not yours or is dissociated from you in some respect.

Something like this is what people with Cotard's Syndrome experience: all the sensory information about themselves and the environment seems to be in order, but in spite of this, the feeling persists that none of it has any meaning or is unreal. In addition, this delirium is broad enough to be able to take on different ways of manifesting itself. Some people believe they are dead, others have the sensation of being immortal, and there are even cases of patients who perceive only some parts of their body as something strange or that it is decomposing.

Possible causes

Cotard's syndrome is complex in its manifestations and its causes, which lie mainly in the functioning of the brain. As we have seen, the processing of information that comes from the outside and is given from sensory stimuli is correct. What goes wrong is the emotional response which should accompany this processing, since everything lacks meaning. lacks meaning. Therefore, it is believed that the main root of nihilistic delirium lies in the abnormal functioning of the part of the brain associated with the processing of emotions: the limbic system, at the base of the brain.

Thus, Cotard's Syndrome would be associated with dissociative type alterations in which there is an abnormal way of feeling certain experiences, not perceiving them sensorially. It would be an incongruence between what our senses inform us and the emotional reaction that we can consider "common sense".

In any case, Cotard's Syndrome teaches us that the human brain carries out very complex and varied very complex and varied tasks so that we can comfortably perceive and interpret reality. That this process is automatic and most of the time goes well does not mean that some of these pieces cannot fail, leaving us with eyes, noses and mouths that correctly report a meaningless world.

Bibliographical references:

• Debruyne H.; Portzky M.; Van den Eynde F.; Audenaert K. (2010). Cotard's syndrome: A Review. Current Psychiatry Reports. 11 (3): 197 - 202.
• McKay R1, Cipolotti L. Attributional style in a case of Cotard delusion. Conscious Cogn. 2007 Jun;16(2):349-59. Epub 2006 Jul 18.
• Morgado, Pedro; Ribeiro, Ricardo; Cerqueira, João J. (2015). "Cotard Syndrome without Depressive Symptoms in a Schizophrenic Patient". Case Reports in Psychiatry. 2015: 643191.
• Sogomy, V. (2012). Depersonalization and the Sense of Realness. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology. 19 (2).
• Yarnada, K.; Katsuragi, S.; Fujii, I. (2007). A Case Study of Cotard's syndrome: Stages and Diagnosis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 100 (5): 396 - 398.
• Young AW1, Robertson IH, Hellawell DJ, de Pauw KW, Pentland B. Cotard delusion after brain injury. Psychol Med. 1992 Ago,; 22(3):799-804.