Rare and unusual psychiatric syndromes have fascinated people for centuries due to their complexity and undefined nature. Appreciating their clinical importance and relevance to understanding other conditions and experiences, this book provides an authoritative account of the rarest and most unusual psychiatric syndromes. The author, a leading authority on clinical psychopathology, delves into the history of the description of such syndromes, illustrates conditions with clinical case examples, and discusses the causes as well as the underlying explanatory mechanisms. The syndromes described draw attention to the way in which abnormal subjective experiences reflect the intersection of biomedical science, social anthropology, social sciences, evolutionary biology and the humanities. The book covers abnormalities of belief, abnormalities of perception, unusual experiences of the body and self, rare and bizarre impairments of memory, and behavioural disturbance. This is a valuable resource for psychiatrists, as well as researchers interested in the relationship between psychiatry and other disciplines.

Examines clinical psychopathology in a novel way, enabling readers to understand abnormal phenomena in a new light and within a broader context
Tackles conditions that are topical, engaging and relevant to current readers, such as delusional misidentification syndromes, pathological jealousy and synaesthesia
Draws on illustrative examples from both the classical literature and contemporary accounts, including autobiographical accounts, letters, journals, fiction and plays, ensuring that readers are fully aware of the classical cases that underpin the descriptions and concepts that have become influential and authoritative today
Femi Oyebode, University of Birmingham
Femi Oyebode is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the National Centre for Mental Health Birmingham and Professor of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham, UK. He was awarded the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 and the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2019, the highest and most prestigious award of the College. An experienced author and published poet, he has published books that include Madness at the Theatre (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and Mindreadings: Literature and Psychiatry (RCPsych Publications, 2009).



Section 1. Abnormalities of Belief and Judgment:
1. Delusional misidentification syndromes
2. Othello syndrome
3. Folie à deux
4. Couvade syndrome
Section 2. Abnormalities of Experience of Love:
5. Erotomania (De Clérambault syndrome)
Section 3. Abnormalities of Perception:
6. Charles Bonnet syndrome
7. Musical hallucinosis
8. Ekbom syndrome
9. Vulvodynia and penoscrotodynia
10. Olfactory reference syndrome
11. Multimodal perceptual syndrome (Synaethesia)
Section 4. Abnormalities of the Self:
12. Depersonalization
13. Autoscopy and related syndromes
14. Dissociation: possession states and dissociative identity disorder
Section 5. Abnormalities of Experience of the Body:
15. Body integrity identity disorder
16. Cotard syndrome
Section 6. Abnormalities of Memory Function:
17. Confabulation
18. Ganser state
Section 7. Abnormalities of Behaviour:
19. Diogenes syndrome.