A nihilistic delusion in which one believes that one’s body, or parts of it, is disintegrating; that one is bereft of all resources; or that one’s family has been exterminated. Neurologically, cotard’s syndrome is thought to be related to capgras’ syndrome, and both are thought to result from a disconnect between the brain areas that recognize faces and the areas that associate emotions with that recognition (the amygdala and other limbic structures). This disconnection creates a sense that the observed face is not the person’s it purports to be; thus, if sufferers see their own face, they may feel no association between it and their sense of self, resulting in a sense that they themselves do not exist. Cotard’s syndrome has been reported in depressive disorders, schizophrenia, and brain lesions of the nondominant hemisphere. The syndrome is named after the french neurologist jules cotard (1840–1887).