MENTAL MODEL · M5227

Charles Bonnet Syndrome

BehaviorHigh supportPsychology

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Updated 2026-08-04

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

A condition named after the Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet, who described it in in his grandfather. People with substantial vision loss, from macular degeneration or glaucoma for example, experience vivid and complex visual hallucinations such as faces, figures, or landscapes. The cause is loss of sensory input rather than psychiatric illness: the visual cortex, deprived of signals, generates activity on its own. Patients typically retain insight that the images are not real. The condition is relevant beyond medicine as a model of how information vacuums get filled by confabulated content.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Vacuum diagnosis: treat unexplained rumors or speculation as a symptom of missing information rather than of malice. - Fill the gap: publish what you do know early, since the brain supplies content when input is absent. - Assessment care: distinguish sensory hallucinations from psychiatric illness before drawing conclusions about a person.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Perception is partly constructed, since the brain predicts what should be present and corrects against incoming signal. When the signal disappears, the prediction machinery keeps running without constraint, and its output is experienced as perception rather than as imagination. Because the content is generated internally, it cannot be suppressed by telling the person to stop seeing it. The same dynamic operates in organizations: absent official information, people generate plausible accounts, and those accounts are experienced as knowledge.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Practice this model in one real situation:

When hallucination-like reports appear, check for sensory or neurological causes before assuming psychiatric illness. 2. Reassure the person and confirm that the images are not real, since insight is usually retained. 3. Treat the underlying sensory loss where possible. 4. In organizations, identify the information vacuum that speculation has filled. 5. Fill the gap with frequent, accurate updates rather than denials.

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Source support: Explicit

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zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9F%A5%E7%88%BE%E6%96%AFZH · Explicit
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