[Psychopathology of person misidentification--a multidimensional concept]

The misidentification of person or Personenverkennung (PV) is provisionally redefined in this paper by focusing on four important points of view offered by German-speaking authors, all more or less based on an analysis of content. These deal with the extent of "craziness" of a PV (Leonhard), the degree of personal relationship of the person misidentified with respect to the patient (Kahlbaum/Pauleikhoff), the extent of the incorrect identification (Jaspers), and, lastly, the stage of stability shown by a PV at a particular point in time (Conrad). On this basis it is suggested that it may be best to initially call the PV simply a "delusion" with all further differentiation of types of PV carried out in light of a multidimensional psychopathological model utilizing various combinations of these four aspects of content.