Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancer’s Prosopagnosia/Pareidolia (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)
Producer
Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancer’s Prosopagnosia/Pareidolia (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus) Lyrics
You're trying to replace yourself
You’re trying to replace yourself, you’re trying to replace yourself
You’re trying to replace yourself, you’re trying to replace yourself
You’re trying to replace yourself, you’re trying to replace yourself
You’re trying to replace yourself, you’re—
[Verse 1]
Carving out a fact from a reckoning
Beckoning you back, skin sagging off its skeleton
Levitating off the ground
Is another man wearing your face
All the other false identities
Remedies or enemies to mitigate your memories
Shuddered at what they found
When they stripped away the grace
Eulogy or biography, I’m who I oughtta be, and that is God to me
(never never never)
So, my God, what’s wrong with me? If who I wanna be might be
Never, never, never
Never, never, never
Never, never, never
No, never!
[Chorus]
You’ll never take me alive, baby. You’ll never take me alive
You’ll never take me, you’ll never take me, you better pray that I die
You’ll never take me alive, baby. You’ll never take me alive
You’ll never take me, you’ll never take me, and no, you’re never gon’ find
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself!
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself!
[Verse 2]
Damn, I thought you’re not your imposter
You’re so sure you’re not gonna get caught
Dead in your own skin
But you didn’t choose what you were born in
And another man in your repertoire
Ready in your head and fed upon your memoirs
Still the same rules apply
From the birthday to the mourning
What you feel and what you do
Are those things really you? And if not, then what is?
(Never never never)
So, my God, what’s wrong with you?
And I’m still asking who that is
Never, never, never
Never, never, never
Never, never, never
No, never!
[Chorus]
You’ll never take me alive, baby, you’ll never take me alive
You’ll never take me, you’ll never take me, you better pray that I die
You’ll never take me alive, baby, you’ll never take me alive
You’ll never take me, you’ll never take me, and no, you’re never gon’ find
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself
[Break]
[Chorus]
You’ll never take me alive, baby, you’ll never take me alive
(This is not enough, this is not enough to prove it yet!)
You’ll never take me, you’ll never take me, you better pray that I die
(No, I need to hit the bottom)
You’ll never take me alive, baby, you’ll never take me alive
(This is not enough, this is not enough to prove it yet!)
You’ll never take me, you’ll never take me, you better pray that I die
(No, I need to hit the bottom)
[Post-Chorus]
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself
Somebody to replace yourself, somebody to replace yourself
About
The Capgras delusion, named after the psychiatrist Joseph Capgras, refers to the delusion that a friend, spouse, or family member has been replaced with an identical imposter; a tulpamancer is someone who practices tulpamancy, the practice of creating an autonomous consciousness in the mind (called a tulpa) through various methods; prosopagnosia, more commonly known as face blindness, is when someone’s ability to recognise faces is impaired; pareidolia is the tendency of the human mind to see faces in inanimate objects or patterns; and the fusiform gyrus is a region of the brain linked to object/face recognition. Trauma to the fusiform gyrus can cause prosopagnosia and alexia, also known as word blindness.
The song seems to be about a person’s struggle to understand who they are but also replace themself with someone else, likely due to some kind of trauma they have experienced in the past.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
“There is no Mr. Capgras, there isn’t a character. There’s no character in SELF-iSH, it’s not a narrative, there aren’t any people being talked about… That title is a series of words and phrases that are intended to invoke concepts that might not otherwise be noticed in the lyrics… It’s vibe-setting… It just comes from my own life of hypochondriasis, hypochondria? I don’t know what the word is. Um, and self-diagnosing and bullshit like that where I’ve worked myself into an anxious frenzy, trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with me. Going on a Wikipedia dive and ending up just exploring the world of abnormal psychology through this casual, sort of pseudo-intellectual trajectory.” – Will Wood, being interviewed by Confused Narrator in 2021
