[Don Quijote, a lucid mad].
The case of a 50-year-old hidalgo who believed to be transformed into a knight-errant named Don Quijote is a megalomaniac systematized delusion of transformation of the self, a delusion of metamorphosis in reference to the patient's own identity. The outward projection of this syndrome produces some delusional misidentifications of others, things and animals and include elements of a persecutory delusion which increase the grandiosity of the self. At the same time the hidalgo was maniac with a pathway of bipolar disorder. The phenomenon of donquijotismo is described as the defence of wasted causes and Sancho Panza as an illiterate Sócrates.
Francisco
F
Alonso Fernández
D008513:Medicine in Literature; D001523:Mental Disorders; D013030:Spain