Insightful hallucination: psychopathology or paranormal phenomenon?
This report describes a 26-year-old man who was so emotionally attached to his mother that the mere thought of separating from her caused immense anxiety. The death of his mother after a brief illness resulted in prolonged bereavement. However, the patient started seeing and talking to his mother after her death, which led to huge improvement in his mood and social functioning. His wife brought him in for consultation but no obvious psychopathology was detected. This gave rise to the dilemma of whether to consider this a real psychopathology and treat it, or to disregard this reported hallucination. No active treatment is being given to this patient at the moment.
Department of Psychiatry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Newfoundland, Canada. amin.muhammad@med.mun.ca
Amin A Muhammad
AA
Gadit
D000328:Adult; D001601:Bereavement; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010268:Parapsychology