CHANGE OF NAME BY A PSYCHOTIC PATIENT: IS IT MANIFESTATION OF A PSYCHOPATHOLOGY MISSED UNTIL NOW?

Abstract

We present a case of a 24-year-old woman who changed her name 3 years after the diagnosis of schizophrenia. She had recurrent thoughts of changing her name for over a year and described her feelings as terrible as if captured in a dark room. She also had obsessional thoughts regarding God talking to her, body image and size. Low self-esteem was a constant feature. The psychopathology of her name changing seemed to be meshed between normal desire, obsessional fixation, overvalued ideas of its benefit, and psychotic thought processes.

Keywords

• change of name
• psychopathology