What psychological perspective is thought to most explain Capgras delusion?

• A. Friedan Perspective
• B. Freudian Perspective
• C. Behaviorist Perspective
• D. Humanistic Perspective

Answer: (B)

Capgras delusion is often approached through a Freudian, psychodynamic lens. From this viewpoint, the belief that a familiar person has been replaced by an impostor can reflect unconscious conflicts and the ego’s defenses against anxiety. A key idea is that unacceptable feelings toward the loved one are projected outward, while a splitting defense keeps the image of the person intact on a cognitive level. This combination can produce the sense that the known person is present but somehow harboring a threatening alter ego, which becomes the impostor in the patient’s perception.

In this light, the impostor serves as a container for those disowned feelings, allowing the individual to maintain a managed sense of self amid internal conflict. Other perspectives aren’t as well aligned with this type explanation: a Friedan-inspired view isn’t a standard clinical framework, behaviorist accounts struggle to account for a fixed, idiosyncratic delusion as opposed to observable behaviors, and humanistic approaches focus on self-actualization and subjective experience rather than the specific misidentification of a person.