Cotard’s Delusion, “Walking Corpse Syndrome”
This extremely rare disease is a mental illness that causes those who have it to believe that they are in fact dead, dying, or do not exist (or are not required to perform activities to ensure that they do not die like drink or eat). Even if they happen to be presented with proof that they are indeed alive, they refuse to believe it and instead make excuses for this evidence.
This disease is named after the French neurologist Jules Cotard, who first documented this disease in the 1800s. one of the first cases of Cotard’s delusion is believed to be a woman who believed that she had no brain or other crucial body parts like nerves. Instead, she was certain that she was only made up of the skin and bones of a body that was decomposing.
