What if your sister, your mother, your boyfriend, your boss and your next-door neighbor were really all the same person, who was constantly altering his or her appearance in order to fool you?
Sufferers of Fregoli delusion believe (mistakenly) that different people in their lives are actually the very same person, using an elaborate array of disguises and costumes to trick them.
It's related to Capgras delusion, another rare psychiatric phenomenon in which a person believes that a close friend or family member has been replaced by an identical looking impostor. Capgras could be tied in to the old belief in medieval folklore that babies were stolen and replaced by changelings, or the modern idea of aliens taking over the bodies of people on earth to live amongst us for reasons unknown. This delusion is most common in people with schizophrenia but it can occur in people suffering from other disorders. Psychiatrists believe it's the result of troubles with facial perception, which can also be caused by traumatic brain injury.
Upon learning of these conditions, I remembered that I used to have a co-worker named Bill whose mood swings were so severe that I used to wonder who he was and what he had done with the real Billy. Of course, I’m totally normal and he is the one who was nuts.
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