Emotional contagion (Studies in Emotional and Social Interaction), Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Hatfield, Elaine, Caccioppo, John T., & Rapson, Richard L.a review of the concept and an unusual case of folie à famille. Wehmeier PM, Barth N, Remschmidt H (2003).A Review of the Concept and an Unusual Case of folie a famille. Uncommon psychiatric syndromes (Fourth edition). (2001) Folie à deux (et Folie à plusieurs). (2002) Abnormal Psychology: Clinical Perspectives on Psychological Disorders.
While a large number of people may come to believe obviously false and potentially distressing things based purely on hearsay, these beliefs are not considered to be clinical delusions by the psychiatric profession and may be labelled as mass hysteria.īeing defined as a rare pathological manifestation, folie à deux is rarely found in general psychology or social psychology text books, and is relatively unknown outside abnormal psychology, psychiatry and psychopathology. diagnostic category and becomes exempt because of the number of people holding it. It is not clear at what point a belief considered to be delusional escapes from the folie à.
The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders states that a person cannot be diagnosed as being delusional if the belief in question is one "ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture" (see entry for delusion).
Both had, in addition, other symptoms supporting a diagnosis of paranoid psychosis, which could be made independently in either case. They believed that certain persons were entering their house, spreading dust and fluff and "wearing down their shoes".
Margaret and her husband Michael, both aged 34 years, were discovered to be suffering from folie à deux when they were both found to be sharing similar persecutory delusions. This case study is taken from Enoch and Ball's 'Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes' (2001, p181): Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as induced delusional disorder ( DSM-IV) or shared psychotic disorder ( ICD-10). (Related to the issue of shared delusions, there have also been occasional claims of shared visual hallucinations that are near-to-exact duplicates.) The same syndrome shared by more than one person may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie à famille or even folie à plusieurs (madness of many). Folie à deux (literally "a madness shared by two") or shared paranoid disorder is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which a symptom of psychosis (particularly a paranoid or delusional belief) is transmitted from one individual to another.