With the eyes of the mind: autoscopic phenomena in the hospital setting

Autoscopy is a rare syndrome in which a person hallucinates a vision of himself, while retaining insight into the unreality of the phenomenon. Although a number of illnesses are associated with autoscopy, the most common causes are stress and fatigue. The medical, psychiatric, literary, and historical contributions to the understanding of autoscopy are reviewed and three recent cases presented. It is emphasized that illness, injury, and hospitalization are important precipitants of the syndrome, particularly in persons with highly developed visual memories.