Helen Grady/Capgras delusion *spoilers*

[game_over]

I just found this interesting article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion

We all know that Helen thought Travis was the

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"Devil's son"

or

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"a pest"

or

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"a bad boy"

and attempted to commit a Benoit style murder-suicide.

Could this "symptom" or "syndrome" be the reason why Helen thought that way about her son?

Although the quote

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"a bad boy"

suggests

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possible incest,

the other two support this theory of mine that Helen Grady might have had the l'illusion des sosies AKA Capgras delusion.

Bare in mind that this condition is mostly known to be a symptom, which means that the patient him/herself would explains the images and visions that go on in his/her mind. Helen herself explain to the Doctor that the people

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in the mirrors

themselves told her (or she fantasized) that her son was not hers and in the first flashback, we hear her saying:

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"you and your devil son!"

which she states that the child was not hers, but was Richard's, denying the parenthood of Travis.

Some of the first clues to the possible causes of the Capgras delusion were suggested by the study of brain-injured patients who had developed prosopagnosia. In this condition, patients are unable to consciously recognize faces despite being able to recognize other types of visual objects. However, a 1984 study by Bauer showed that even though conscious face recognition was impaired, patients with the condition showed autonomic arousal (measured by a galvanic skin response measure) to familiar faces, suggesting that there are two pathways to face recognition - one conscious and one unconscious.

Conscious: This world "just a day dream"
Unconscious: Mirror world "people in the mirrors" "other world" or her dream world-

Her fantasies of a "mirror world" have become more acute, and she spends more and more time in an apparent catatonic state. She claims that during this time she is in the "other world."

This shows the Syndrome part of her condition, where we see her(or picture her in that state in front of a mirror) making a trip into the illusion world and talking with "them" and returning back to the real world and coming to this belief that her son in wicked and should be killed which she saw as a "duty".

From a psychiatrist's point of view, there may be more roots and this alone might have not been her condition.

Share your thoughts and tell me what you think.

[alessas angel]

I think that is interesting and probable. Great find! I think that is just about the most interesting theory I have seen.

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Anything you would like to add/criticize?

[alessas angel]

no not really. she did appear delusional. but where was her brain injury? it never mentioned one.

[AuraTwilight]

Is it possible that she wasn't actually delusional in the strict sense, but was actually being pulled to the Otherworld in spirit?

Otherwise, this is a pretty kickass thread.

[David01]

I agree, this is a kickass thread and I hope that it continues. Also, I believe that in fact the people in the mirror world, was nothing but an illusion. Now being this is a silent hill story, there is probably some supernatural stuff going on, but mostly on the part of Alessa. I dont believe that Helen Grady, or Travis had any kind of super natural powers to speak of. Just Helen Grady was a whack job, and Travis was the victim of years of abuse. But on the other hand, I do agree with you on this thread, and find this to be most interesting.

[AuraTwilight]

You don't need to have supernatural powers to experience the Otherworld on your own. Every human in the SH Universe can experience it.

[PeachySakura24]

You would need some seriously rocking supernatural powers to actually travel back and forth between mirror worlds, though, I would imagine.

[AuraTwilight]

Er...NO. Anything is possible in the Otherworld a person creates by virtue of the fact that they created it and serve basically as it's god, and anyone in the Silent Hill universe can create an Otherworld at practically any time so long as there's strong enough thoughts and emotions to fuel it.

People like Alessa and Walter are special because they can influence the REAL world.

[PeachySakura24]

Travis accesses the otherworld through the mirrors. If he actually is travelling through mirrors, that would have to take some degree of abilities. This thread is suggesting that the mirror world was an illusion, since Travis and his mother had no special powers. No one said you had to have powers to experience the otherworld, because obviously you don't.

[AuraTwilight]

If he is actually traveling through mirrors, it doesn't mean he has powers, it just means that the Otherworld he's in allows him to travel through it's mirrors naturally, just like it doesn't mean your special if you can get an airplane off the ground.

Helen's Mirror World may have been just a delusion, but Travis was traveling between two different Otherworlds (or two planes of the same Otherworld, whatever) physically via mirrors.

[PeachySakura24]

What on earth does traveling through mirrors have to do with getting an airplane off the ground? One can get a license to fly a plane. A plane can be flown by people who know how to do so. There is no license to travel through a mirror.

[game_over]

To those dear friends who say that super powers are needed to travel between the worlds: That is not true. Silent Hill is not the place for magic positions, magic powers and Harry Potter magic wands. Its a place connected to the character's mind and his/her ideas and psychological problems rather than having powers to shift between two sides of a mirror.

Travis was still in the same Silent Hill, he just saw the whole place different. That is because the whole thing was in his mind. The reason why Harry in SH1 saw stuff different, some as the others, was because Alessa forced these ideas into their heads, that is why everybody got the headaches. The otherworld isn't physically another world, its an ideal world. Coming from the mind.

To continues giving proof about my theory and its connection with the character, I have found an article which can be easily compared with Helen Grady and her relationship with the mirror world since it has real life examples:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03266/224822.stm

[AuraTwilight]

What on earth does traveling through mirrors have to do with getting an airplane off the ground? One can get a license to fly a plane. A plane can be flown by people who know how to do so. There is no license to travel through a mirror.

It's an analogy. You don't need magic powers to do something like driving a vehicle, the laws of reality simply make it possible. Just like the laws of Travis's Otherworld allows him to go through mirrors. Having powers isn't a factor.

The otherworld isn't physically another world, its an ideal world. Coming from the mind.

I have to nitpick, the Otherworld is another physical world, since subjects disappear, but it's contents and nature are crafted from the mind.

[game_over]

I have to nitpick, the Otherworld is another physical world, since subjects disappear, but it's contents and nature are crafted from the mind.

Maybe, probably, definantly, not at all and I'm not sure.

I remember there was another special name for that as well.

[AuraTwilight]

Is it "Ambiguous" you're thinking of?

[game_over]

Is it "Ambiguous" you're thinking of?

No.

I can't find the name right now. I'll look for it a bit more. Its actually a Syndrome for people who may see an area differently and I may get into James problems as well in the SH2 thread.

[FatalFrame]

I thought that the mirror travelling was like his way to get in between. Like Harry and Heather passing out. I do like your theory though. I'm always on the lookout for unusual psychiatric conditions and you've given me one, thanks!

But really, I do like your theory. It kind of makes me wonder if the writers of "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" knew about it.

It would explain her catatonic state and why she only

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got violent with her husband and son.

[AuraTwilight]

I can't find the name right now. I'll look for it a bit more. Its actually a Syndrome for people who may see an area differently and I may get into James problems as well in the SH2 thread.

Schitzophrenia?

Anyway, James isn't seeing things or anything in reality, just the Otherworld. The only problems that can really be attributed to James are memory repression and such, which in his circumstances are totally normal.

[game_over]

I can't find the name right now. I'll look for it a bit more. Its actually a Syndrome for people who may see an area differently and I may get into James problems as well in the SH2 thread.

Schitzophrenia?

Anyway, James isn't seeing things or anything in reality, just the Otherworld. The only problems that can really be attributed to James are memory repression and such, which in his circumstances are totally normal.

Wasn't that suppose to be diagnosis? Yeah, its a diagnosis. I think you mistook it with DID(Dissociative identity disorder).

Well, we all know that the characters are deluding those stuff and its all in their mind. Is that what you are saying?

Somewhere, I can't really relate SH1 and SH2 together.