To Understand Facebook, Study Capgras Syndrome

This mental disorder gives us a unique insight into the digital age

Illlustration: Dadu Shin

By Robert Sapolsky

W e start with the case of a woman who experienced unbearable tragedy. In 1899, this Parisian bride, Madame M., had her first child. Shockingly, the child was abducted and substituted with a different infant, who soon died. She then had twin girls. One grew into healthy adulthood, while the other, again, was abducted, once more replaced with a different, dying infant. She then had twin boys. One was abducted, while the other was fatally poisoned.

Madame M. searched for her abducted babies; apparently, she was not the only victim of this nightmarish trauma, as she often heard the cries of large groups of abducted children rising from the cellars of Paris.

FREUDIAN INFLUENCE: Turn-of-the-century French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras (above) presciently speculated that delusions could reflect some sort of brain disease. But under the powerful cultural influence of Freud, he instead jumped on the psychodynamic bandwagon. Illustration: Jackie Ferrentino

In 1918, Madame M. summoned the police to aid her in rescuing a group of children locked in her basement. Soon she was speaking with a psychiatrist. She told him she was the direct descendant of Louis XVIII, the queen of the Indies, and of the Duke of Salandra. She had a fortune of somewhere between 200 million and 125 billion francs, and had…