Scientists learn how familiarity breeds delusion.(The Dallas Morning News)

From: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service | Date: April 23, 2001| Author: | Copyright information

The next time the Earth is invaded by pod people, it might be a good idea to call a psychiatrist.

Sure, your spouse and neighbors may be acting strangely because aliens have taken over their bodies. But it's also possible that you may be suffering from an obscure psychiatric disorder known as Capgras delusion.

Victims of this delusion, say psychologists Hadyn Ellis and Michael Lewis, are seized by "the firm and sometimes dangerous belief that some people are no longer who they were: Instead they have been replaced by doubles, impostors, robots, aliens and so forth."

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