ABSTRACT
The phenomena of perplexity states and of what is called “déjà vu” illuminate each other reciprocally. The latter is a peculiar experience occurring in many normal people—one writer claims in 30 per cent. of adults. It is still more frequent among children and adolescents. Some actual perception, usually visual or auditory, is suddenly felt to have been experienced before, although its previous occurrence cannot be explicitly remembered. The affective accompaniment is its most distinctive characteristic, thus differentiating it from the normal recognition of the familiar, or from the ordinary confabulated memories of the insane. The subject strives to recall the earlier incident, cannot do so, and feels particularly and unpleasantly at sea. This painful and tantalizing emotional state may so far engross the attention that the perception which has occasioned it, may pass out of mind leaving only the affective state behind. Many terms have been applied to this phenomenon. Kraepelin called it paramnesia, while French writers have employed such labels as fausse reconnaissance, déjà acoute, déjà éprouvé, déjà raconté, and so on.
