Doppelgänger. Analysing ‘Doubles' Across Antiquity, Fiction, Psychopathology, And Neuroscience

1. Introduction
2. The double in antiquity
3. The double as other in the novel
4. The double as duality in fiction
5. Implicit double in fiction
6. The double in film
7. The double in clinical psychopathology
8. The double in neuroscience
9. The ultimate illusion: understanding embodiment and the self.

The concept of doppelgänger, or 'double' – a conceived exact but sometimes invisible replica of a living person – has fascinated and intrigued people for centuries. This notion has a long history and is a widespread belief among cultural groups around the world. Doppelgängers have influenced literature and cinema, with writers such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Robert Louis Stevenson, and directors like Alfred Hitchcock exploring the phenomenon to great effect. This book brings together the literary and cinematic with empirical scientific literature to raise fundamental questions about the nature of the self and the human mind. It aims to establish the experience of the self and unravel the brain processes that determine bodily representation and the errors that make possible the experience of the doppelgänger phenomenon. This book will appeal to psychiatrists, neurologists, and neuroscientists, as well as interested general readers.

• Illustrates a complex theoretical question of mind-body interaction through fiction and cinema
• Anchors complex empirical science in the context of familiar and widely available sources – an approach that is unique in disseminating complex scientific knowledge
• A real example of interdisciplinary work in action

Femi Oyebode, University of Birmingham
Professor Femi Oyebode studied medicine at the University of Ibadan, graduating with distinction in 1977. He has been Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham since 1999. He has authored several books, including Mindreadings: Literature and Psychiatry and Sims' Symptoms in the Mind, which has been translated into multiple languages. He has also received numerous accolades, including the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2016.