
The workshop opened with a presentation by Brian McLaughlin (Rutgers) entitled 'Delusions and Feelings'. McLaughlin presented a model of the Capgras delusion (the delusion that a loved one has been replaced with an imposter). McLaughlin argued that it is necessary to posit the "cognitive feeling" of unfamiliarity to explain how Capgras belief is acquired. The experience of unfamiliarity has a strongly affective aspect that causes the sufferer to straightaway acquire the belief that the person in front of her is unfamiliar. Anxiety and paranoia then cause a tunneling of attention, and a full-fledged delusional theory thus grows from the single delusional belief.