Word of the Week

Cotard's Syndrome (n.) - People with Cotard's syndrome (also called walking corpse syndrome or Cotard's delusion) believe that parts of their body are missing, or that they are dying, dead, or don’t exist. They may think nothing exists.

I learned this week that a friend's mother has Cotard's Syndrome. She believes she's dead, though she's perfectly alive. It's a rare condition with only about 200 people around the world having it. Still it's troubling. My friend will get calls from his mother and she'll chastise him for not calling him since she'd died. She's gotten upset with lots of people in her circle for neglecting her since she died.

Most people are cured with treatment so I hope my friend's mother falls into that category.

Reference

"Cotard's Syndrome." (2020.) WebMD.com. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/cotards-syndrome on August 21, 2021.