Cotard Syndrome

I'm going to share my text with you, which addresses an interesting topic. My purpose is to help you perceive and analyze people's expressions and actions with a more developed awareness. Many people tell you about jinn and ghosts. Perhaps you, too, think you've seen a jinn or ghost. The text below demonstrates the tricks our brains can play on us and the situations they can lead us into.

In this article, I'll tell you about an interesting disease that I suspect many of you are unfamiliar with. I suspect you'll all be astonished by its characteristics, which you'll likely encounter for the first time. This disease takes its name from Jules Cotard, who first described it.

Patients with Cotard's syndrome believe themselves to be dead. No amount of argument, proof to the contrary, or reassurance can dissuade them from this crazy idea.

Jules Cotard describes a 43-year-old woman with this disease: "She was convinced she had no brain, intestines, or stomach. Her body, she said, consisted only of skin and the decayed remains of her bones. She claimed she had no need to eat because her body had been destroyed from within. To her, she was a dead body, a living dead. She didn't deny her existence, but she insisted that her body be cremated, convinced that if it wasn't, she would remain in this state forever."

Patients are often convinced that their internal organs are either non-functional or non-existent, and they believe they lack a solid body and are dead. No proof to the contrary can dissuade them from their certainty of their non-existence, but they simultaneously imagine they will remain in this state forever. Even contemplating suicide as a way to escape this agonizing state is not contrary to their beliefs. A young architecture student living in Germany, diagnosed with the condition after suffering a severe skull trauma, said: "Perhaps by committing suicide and passing away, we should show fate that we truly want to be dead." The profound distress this situation can be understood from this student's retrospective comment: "I was very surprised that there was a life after death, but I was disappointed that it was so horrific. I thought I must have done terrible things in my life to receive this punishment." This student was successfully treated. A few months after his traumatic accident, doctors were able to restore balance to his psychological state.

Successful treatment is closely tied to the underlying cause of the disease, as it can have many causes. Mechanical trauma to the brain, as in the university student, may be a contributing factor. Cotard's 43-year-old female patient stated that her illness began when she felt a clicking sensation in her spinal cord and felt the clicking travel up to her brain.

New research suggests that Cotard syndrome is difficult to pin down, as it appears to manifest in various medical conditions. For example, Cotard syndrome can manifest as profound depression in a person who feels meaningless and purposeless. In this case, the feeling of worthlessness can lead to the delusion of nothingness. Schizophrenic psychosis can also lead to this illness.

In addition to appropriate medications, special care and protection of the patient are considered appropriate therapy. During the most intense periods of the illness, the patient requires urgent assistance. This assistance is made possible by having another person assume the patient's lost sense of "being" and take over the functions of the body they had previously considered dead. These functions include nutrition, care, and protection of the patient. When the patient's delusions begin to subside, they often require follow-up psychological treatments to eliminate the contributing factors. Many patients who contract this disease through mechanical trauma have been able to return to normal life and return to work after successful examinations.

Author: İlker Savas