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Can you point me to some good resources on the subject of people doing things they don't remember and instead blaming them on other people?

Asked by Jeruba (55836points) February 15th, 2022

I’m talking about someone’s behavior and the memory of it being affected by drugs, mental health issues, or both. Something like an “evil twin” syndrome—where the person feels persecuted by an unknown harasser who steals his things, messes with them, destroys them, and/or plants odd items among his belongings.

The suspected or hypothesized reality is that the person is doing all these things himself in an altered state, without being aware of them or remembering them. He then goes into rages of blaming and accusing and paranoia against others who are not doing anything to him at all.

This includes repeated calls to police to say, for example, that someone (he names the culprit, says he has proof) damages an expensive tool or makes a car inoperable. He can show the damaged item. This does not amount to any proof of the culprit, but he knows who did it. He flips out in the same way when he thinks someone has put a hole in the bottom of a plastic tub so that now it leaks, or stolen the handle from a small hand tool, or taken three nutrition bars.

Is there a name for this? Is there literature that you can refer me to? I need to get some kind of handle on it. There’s no use waiting for the person to seek help of his own accord, but I need help.

Thank you for any pointers or references.

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