Cotard’s syndrome, or Cotard’s delusion as it is often called, is a rare neuropsychiatric disorder in which a person believes they are dead, that they do not even exist, or sometimes that the world itself does not exist.
The condition was described in 1880 by Jules Cotard, a French neurologist and psychiatrist. In a presentation to the Société Médico-Psychologique, Cotard reported the case of a 43-year-old patient who believed she had “no brain, nerves, chest or entrails, and was just skin and bone.” She claimed to need no food because she was “eternal and would live forever.”
What Is Cotard's Syndrome?
Not all patients with Cotard’s syndrome expect to live forever in some Zombie-like state. In fact, most believe that they’re already dead or very close to death. Individuals with Cotard's Syndrome experience a profound distortion of reality and beliefs about their existence.
