Attributional style in a case of Cotard delusion

Young and colleagues (e.g. Young, A. W., & Leafhead, K. M. (1996). Betwixt life and death: case studies of the Cotard delusion. In P. W. Halligan & J. C. Marshall (Eds.), Method in madness: Case studies in cognitive neuropsychiatry. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.) have suggested th...

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Published in:	Consciousness and cognition 2007-06, Vol.16 (2), p.349-359
Main Authors:	McKay, Ryan, Cipolotti, Lisa
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Adult Adult and adolescent clinical studies Attributional style Biological and medical sciences Brain Brain - pathology Capgras Syndrome - psychology Case studies Case study Case-Control Studies Cognition & reasoning Consciousness Cotard delusion Death Delusions - etiology Delusions - pathology Delusions - psychology Ego Encephalitis, Herpes Simplex - complications Encephalitis, Herpes Simplex - pathology Epilepsy - complications Epilepsy - pathology Epilepsy - virology Eyes & eyesight Face Female Humans Medical sciences Mental disorders Miscellaneous Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology Perceptions Personality Psychiatry Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Psychopathology. Psychiatry Recognition (Psychology) Social Perception
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Summary:	Young and colleagues (e.g. Young, A. W., & Leafhead, K. M. (1996). Betwixt life and death: case studies of the Cotard delusion. In P. W. Halligan & J. C. Marshall (Eds.), Method in madness: Case studies in cognitive neuropsychiatry. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.) have suggested that cases of the Cotard delusion (the belief that one is dead) result when a particular perceptual anomaly (caused by a disruption to the affective component of visual recognition) occurs in the context of an internalising attributional style. This hypothesis has not previously been tested directly. We report here an investigation of attributional style in a 24-year-old woman with Cotard delusion (“LU”). LU’s attributional style (and that of ten healthy control participants) was assessed using the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (Kinderman, P., & Bentall, R. P. (1996). A new measure of causal locus: the internal, personal and situational attributions questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 20(2), 261–264.). LU showed a significantly greater proportion of internalising attributions than the control group, both overall and for negative events specifically. The results obtained thus support an association of Cotard delusion with an internalising attributional style, and are therefore consistent with the account of Young and colleagues. The potential brain basis of Cotard delusion is discussed.
ISSN:	1053-8100 1090-2376