Kandinsky–Clérambault syndrome

Not to be confused with Clerambault syndrome.
Kandinsky–Clérambault syndrome
Other namesSyndrome of the psychic automatism
SpecialtyPsychiatry Edit this on Wikidata

The Kandinsky–Clérambault syndrome or syndrome of the psychic automatism is a psychopathological syndrome, considered to be a typical feature of paranoid schizophrenia and is characterized by pseudohallucinations, delusions of control, telepathy, thought broadcasting and thought insertion by an external force.[1] The syndrome also characterized by delusion of being controlled by a source outside himself.[2] The Kandinsky-Clérambault syndrome is not well known and it is used mainly by Russian, French and German psychiatrists.[3]

History

The syndrome of Kandinsky–Clérambault is named after Victor Kandinsky and Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault. Victor Kandinsky (1849–1889), a Russian psychiatrist, was the first to describe the syndrome of psychic automatism by his own subjective personal experiences during his psychotic episode. The syndrome of psychic automatism is described in a Kandinsky's monograph in Russian "On Pseudohallucinations" (Russian: О псевдогаллюцинациях) published posthumously in 1890 by his wife Elizaveta Freimut. The syndrome is also identified by Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault (1872–1934), a French psychiatrist who credited with introducing the term "psychic automatism".[3]

Literature

Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love has a victim of the syndrome, a jed Parry, as one of the protagonists. Parry targets and almost destroys the married life of the science journalist he falls in love with. [4] [5]

References

  1. ^ Lavretsky, H. (1998). "The Russian Concept of Schizophrenia: A Review of the Literature". Schizophrenia Bulletin. 24 (4): 537–557. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a033348. ISSN 0586-7614. PMID 9853788.
  2. ^ Richard Noll (2009). The Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders. Infobase Publishing. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-8160-7508-9.
  3. ^ a b Vladimir Lerner, Alexander Kaptsan & Eliezer Witztum (2003). "Kandinsky-Clérambault's Syndrome: concept of use for Western psychiatry". Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences. 40 (1): 40–46. PMID 12817668.
  4. ^ Ian McEwan, Enduring Love, Vintage Books 1997. The fictional appendix attributed to Drs Robert Wenn and Antonio Camia in on pages pp.233-243.
  5. ^ ['Doctors Wenn and Camia, I Presume? Inside Ian McEwan’s papers,'] Ransom Center magazine University of Texas at Austin 15 October 2015