The functioning of our nervous system is complex enough to give rise, on certain occasions when something does not work properly, to all kinds of syndromes that can be difficult to believe.
Although the brain gives us a unitary and meaningful conception of reality, sometimes certain alterations can cause our way of perceiving things to be completely torn without us even realizing it. This list with the rarer mental syndromes It serves as an example to see to what extent our nervous system is capable of entering into harmful dynamics without ceasing to function.
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In turn, the knowledge and study of these rare syndromes can help to understand that pathological cases cannot be simply labeled with the label “madness” and that there are underlying norms and rules that can be studied to improve social integration and the quality of life of these people.
1. Crystal illusion
Within the calls cultural syndromes We can find some of the most curious cases of rare mental syndromes. Among them, one can name the crystal illusion.
People who suffer from this psychiatric disorder They believe that they are made of this fragile material and that, therefore, they can break with the slightest blow.. Despite having a large number of reasons and reasons to think that their body is normal, they are not able to abandon this totally irrational belief.
This syndrome was much more common a few centuries ago, and the majority of cases occurred between the 15th and 18th centuries. In fact, Miguel de Cervantes used a protagonist suffering from this rare syndrome in his Exemplary Novelsspecifically in Mr. Vidriera. However, currently some isolated cases of glass illusion have been observed.
If it is considered one of the rarest mental syndromes, it is precisely because It is difficult to explain in words what those people who suffer from it feel..
The people with Cotard syndrome They believe they are dead or belong to a plane of reality that does not correspond to that of the rest of the people and objects. Classically, these people deny the existence of their body as something alive or that it belongs to the same category as their mind. Thus, they may believe that their flesh is rotting, that their internal organs are disappearing, or that in some figurative way they themselves have ceased to exist.
We delve deeper into this strange syndrome: “Cotard syndrome: living people who believe they are dead”
3. Bálint syndrome
A rare syndrome in which the patient experiences severe alterations in the processing of the images he sees and in the coordination of his movements.
Specifically, three categories of symptoms have been described: the inability to process images as a whole, problems coordinating arm movements according to what is being seen, and problems moving the eyes. This means, for example, that someone with Bálint syndrome You will be able to see a person if they are close, but you will not know if they are next to you or a few meters away, on the other side of a window, since you will not be able to see the image as a whole but rather each of its parts separately. .
Likewise, you will only be able to pick up an object you are looking at with your hand after many attempts and thanks largely to chance.
4. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
Like the protagonist of Lewis Carroll’s novel, people with this rare syndrome experience alterations in space-time…or at least that’s what happens in your consciousness.
They may believe that certain objects are much larger or smaller than they really are, or that time no longer follows its traditional rules at certain places or times.
5. Anton syndrome
He Anton syndrome It is a variant of cortical blindness in which the patient acts as if he can see.
Although your eyes work well and the pupils react to variations in light, the back part of the brain (occipital lobes) does not work well and the data coming from the optic nerves is not processed to form an image, which is not possible. It prevents certain areas of the brain from acting as if that information were reaching them.
As a consequence, People who suffer from this rare syndrome deny the evidence that they do not see anythingwhich leads them to formulate all kinds of explanations to justify their continuous stumbles and failures when detecting people and objects.
6. Capgras syndrome
One of the rarest syndromes, since affects subjective and emotional aspects of our way of reacting to the presence of others.
People who experience capgras delirium They believe that certain people, generally friends or family, have been replaced by impostors, although there are no objective reasons to support such a hypothesis. Thus, they are able to recognize the body, face and manner of dress of, for example, their own father, but they will deny that his identity is true and will react with hostility to the sight of him.
It is a syndrome related to Prosopagnosia, although the latter has a cognitive component.
7. Alien hand syndrome
In people with Alien Hand Syndromethose affected see how one of his hands seems to act of its own willwithout consciousness itself having any role in defining the intentions and movements of this part of the body.
This is frequently accompanied by the sensation that the hand does not belong to oneself, but to another foreign entity. These symptoms are part of a very rare neurological disease, but curiously came to light in the film Dr. Strangelove, in which Peter Sellers played an antagonist whose hand seemed to take on a life of its own, which served to cause this set of symptoms. be called frequently Dr. Strangelove Syndrome.
8. Othello Syndrome
This is another of those rare syndromes in which delusions and strange ideas about everyday reality take center stage.
Specifically, people who experience Othello syndrome They believe that their partners are being unfaithful to them, and to do so they base themselves on the strangest hypotheses and the most insignificant details. It may seem like a caricature of an extreme case of jealousy, but the truth is that it is a psychopathology with very serious consequences both for the person who suffers from it and for their close environment.
9. Münchhausen syndrome
People with this syndrome They pretend to be sick so that others can take care of them. In some cases, they can even inflict all kinds of wounds and injuries on themselves to become patients.
This behavior is part of the need to assume the role of someone who constantly needs special care, and all of this through pathological lies.
10. Fregoli syndrome
One of the rarest mental syndromes is Fregoli syndromein which the patient believe that different people are, in reality, one.
That is, you have the feeling that one or more people have the ability to change their appearance to meet you under different disguises. Fregoli Syndrome is accompanied by paranoid thoughts and persecutory mania that derive from this strange sensation.
