THE “DEJA-VU” PHENOMENON – FORENSIC AND PSYCHIATRIC IMPLICATIONS

A. Scripcaru, C. Furnică, G. Crăciun, C. Scripcaru

Abstract: The “déjà-vu” phenomenon is very frequent in normal individuals but also in some psychiatric diseases [most often in epileptic disease]. The non-pathological “déjà-vu” state may appear spontaneously in individuals without psychiatric symptoms and that is why people couldn’t understand the specific behavioral effects. According to the cognitive psychology, déjà-vu represents any subjective feeling of false familiarity which is given by a present event towards a past one. The new stimulations of “here and now” generate a strong feeling of recognition of objects or events which we perceive as already lived. The déjà-vu state may appear and disappear suddenly, being experienced like a strange feeling or an illusion that our actual experience was lived in an identical way before. It represents a pure subjective experience associated with hard to explain feelings, even if one realizes that they are in that place, situation or state for the first and only time. The déjà-vu state is perceived by several senses, not only by sight but also by hearing, taste, touch or proprioceptive sensations. The result is an extremely detailed perception which may last from one second to a few minutes. Even if forensic consequences are rare, sometimes the déjà-vu state may accompany some psychiatric diseases [epileptic psychosis, schizophrenia], determining the amplification of delirium and the focus on a certain dominant direction which becomes obsessive for the patient.
Keywords: déjà-vu, epilepsy, memory.