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The life of Leopoldo Fregoli

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Graeme Yorston*
Affiliation:
The Elms Clinic, Oxford Road, Banbury, Oxon OX16 9AL
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The Fregoli delusion is one of a number of misidentification syndromes. It is characterised by a patient recognising a familiar person, usually seen as a persecutor, in various strangers who, although they do not show physical resemblance, are believed to be psychologically identical to the familiar person. It usually occurs in the context of a schizophrenic illness but has been reported in affective disorders and organic psycho-syndromes (Förstl et al, 1991). It was first described by the French authors Courbon & Fail in 1927, who used the term ‘Fregoli illusion’ after the Italian actor who enjoyed enormous popular success on the Paris stage at the time. It has also been called the ‘illusion of negative doubles'. However, as the psychopathology is a delusional interpretation of normal visual stimuli rather than an abnormal perception the terms Fregoli delusion or ‘delusional hyper-identification of the Fregoli type’ are preferable. The original case description has recently been translated and annotated (Ellis et al 1994) but there remains little background information available on the figure of Fregoli himself. Biographies have appeared in French and Italian but there are few English language references and this paper is intended to provide an account of the life and career of one of the most extraordinary entertainers in theatre history.

Type
The History of Psychiatry
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1995

References

Courbon, P. & Fail, G. (1927) Syndrome d'illusion de Frégoli et schizophrenic Bulletin de la Société Clinique de Medicine Mentale, 15, 121125.Google Scholar
Ellis, H. D., Whitley, J. & Luauté, J. (1994) Delusional misidentification: The three original papers on the Capgras, Fregoli and intermetamorphosis delusions. Journal of History of Psychiatry, v. 117146.Google Scholar
Förstl, H., et al (1991) Psychiatric, neurological and medical aspects of misidentification syndromes: a review of 260 cases. Psychological Medicine, 21, 905910.Google Scholar
Fregoli, L. (1936) Fregoli Raccontato da Fregoli Milan: Rizzoli.Google Scholar
Nohain, J. & Caradec, F. (1968) Fregoli – Sa Vie et ses Secrets. Paris: La Jeune Parque.Google Scholar
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