Greffe d’identité : l’étude des changements de personnalité chez les transplantés

Context

Advances in organ transplantation medicine have coincided with the emergence of a new form of exceptional experience at the frontiers of life: personality changes attributed by transplant recipients to the donor or the organ received. Studies with small sample sizes began to build a database in the 1990s, alongside popular interest in the subject, which was reflected in several works of fiction. A fraction of transplant recipients identify changes in one or more areas of their lives: emotions, diet, sexual orientation, religious or spiritual beliefs, memories, physical activities, etc.

Methods

After a summary presentation of a few cases from this literature, we propose a review of the literature on the various changes observed, the factors possibly involved (immunosuppressive drugs, vascular and metabolic factors, psychological and emotional stress factors), and the main explanatory models (cellular memory, psychosocial adaptation phenomenon, and non-ordinary phenomenon).

Discussion

We then discuss the associated risks for transplant recipients, donor families, the public, and in the context of medical practice. Next, we analyze the clinical recommendations recently promoted by some researchers: prioritizing the scientific perspective, reframing identity changes within a multifactorial context, and developing a clinical approach to accommodate these narratives without directly invalidating them. Finally, we propose research perspectives to improve our knowledge of this phenomenon.