negative autoscopy

negative autoscopy
   Also known as negative heautoscopy and asomatoscopy. The term negative autoscopy is used to denote a variant of *autoscopy (i.e. the perception of a hallucinated image of oneself) characterized by the transient failure to perceive one's own mirror image while looking into a reflecting surface such as a mirror. Reports of negative autoscopy are extremely rare. In his classic work on autoscopy, the French physician and psychologist Paul Auguste Sollier (1861-1933) mentions three cases of negative autoscopy. In two of these cases, the affected individual is described as being unable to perceive his own reflection in the mirror. In one of these cases, the reflection reportedly returned after half an hour. In the third case, the inability to perceive a mirror image was attributable to the interference by lively * visual hallucinations depicting various scenes and unknown faces (i.e. * facial hallucinations). Sollier suspected that two of the three cases may have been due to hysteria. He employed the term negative autoscopy in opposition to the term * positive autoscopy, or what is today known simply as autoscopy. Conceptually, negative autoscopy is related to * mirrored self-misidentification. In a conceptual and phenomenological sense, it has also been linked to prosopagnosia (i.e. 'face blindness'), especially in those cases where a reflection in the mirror is misidentified as someone else's. This 'incomplete' type of negative autoscopy has been designated bytheFrenchpsy-chiatrists Henri Hécaen (1912-1983) and Julian de Ajuriaguerra (1911-1993) as a variant of * autotopagnosia. Negative autoscopy may be classified as a *cognitive illusion. It has also been classified as a *negative hallucination which is restricted to one's own body. In the latter reading, the notion ofnegative autoscopy includes the inability to perceive one's body directly, either in part (i.e. seeing only one side of the body) or in whole. Negative autoscopy may be accompanied by *aschematia or *acenesthesia.
   References
   Brugger, P., Regard, M., Landis, Th. (1997). Illusory reduplication of one's own body: Phenomenology and classification of auto-scopic phenomena. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 2, 19-38.
   Dening, T.R., Berrios, G.E. (1994). Autoscopic phenomena. British Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 808-817.
   Hécaen, H., de Ajuriaguerra, J. (1952). Méconnaissances et hallucinations corporelles. Intégration et désintégration de la somatog-nosie. Paris: Masson et Cie., Éditeurs.
   Sollier, P. (1903). Les phénomènes d'autoscopie. Paris: Félix Alcan.

Dictionary of Hallucinations. . 2010.

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  • autoscopy —    The term autoscopy comes from the Greek words autos (self) and skopeô (I am looking at). It translates roughly as seeing oneself and is used to denote the act of perceiving a hallucinated mirror image of oneself, viewed from the position of… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • Autoscopy — This article excludes paranormal interpretations. Autoscopy is defined as an experience in which a person while believing to be awake sees her/his body and the world from a location outside her/his physical body. More precisely, autoscopy… …   Wikipedia

  • negative heautoscopy —    see negative autoscopy …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • positive autoscopy —    The term positive autoscopy is indebted to the Greek words autos (self) and skopeo (I am looking at). It was introduced in or shortly before 1903 by the French physician and psychologist Paul Auguste Sollier (1861 1933). Sollier uses the… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • heautoscopy —    Also written as héautoscopy. Both terms stem from the Greek words heautou ( of oneself ) and skopeô (I am looking at). They translate loosely as seeing oneself or seeing [something] of oneself . In the older literature heau toscopy is also… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • autoscopic phenomenon —    Also known as phantom double. The expression autoscopic phenomenon comes from the Greek words autos (self) and skopeo (I am looking at). It translates roughly as a phenomenon that involves the seeing of oneself . The group of autoscopic… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • acenesthesia —    Also known as acoenesthesiopathy, general elementary somatopsychosis, and asomatognosia. The term acenesthesia comes from the Greek words a (not), koinos (communal), and aisthanesthai (to notice, to perceive). It translates loosely as not… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • aschematia —    The term aschematia comes from the Greek words an (not) and schèma (form, scheme, or topographic map). It translates roughly as an inadequate mapping of space . The term asché matie was introduced in or shortly before 1905 by the French… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • asomatoscopy —    see negative autoscopy …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

  • autotopagnosia —    Also known as autotopoagnosia and somatotopagnosia. The term autotopagnosia comes from the Greek words autos (self), topos (place), a (not), and gnosis (insight). It translates loosely as not being able to recognize a body part of oneself .… …   Dictionary of Hallucinations

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