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A delusion of immortality – the dilemma of the Struldbruggs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Rachael Cullivan  and
Brian A Lawlor
Rachael Cullivan
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St. Vincent's Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin 4, Ireland
Brian A Lawlor
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, St. Vincent's Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin 4, Ireland
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Abstract

We describe a lady with a history of recurrent psychotic depression, together with a persistent delusion of immortality, which appears to be independent of the depressive illness. It is of interest that this woman is a patient of the hospital founded by Dean Jonathan Swift, who described a people stricken with a similar dilemma of unhappy immortality over 200 years ago.

Keywords

Delusional disorderJonathan SwiftGulliver's TravelsCotard's syndromeImmortality
Type
Case Reports
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 32 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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References

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