Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T05:05:14.006Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Shifts of Dependency in the Resolution of Folie à Deux

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Taylor L. Porter*
Affiliation:
Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, USA
John Levine
Affiliation:
Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, USA
Michael Dinneen
Affiliation:
Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, USA
*
Mental Health Department Building 1407, Naval Medical Clinic, Pearl Harbour, H17680-5080, USA

Extract

We have presented a case of folie à deux in which the wife was the primary (dominant) partner and the husband the secondary (submissive) partner. The husband's symptoms seemed to have resolved as his dependency shifted from his wife back to his mother. Treatment is recommended by deliberately shifting dependencies only when there is advantage in doing so. For most patients, the aim should be independence.

Type
Brief Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The opinions and assertions in this paper are those of the authors and are not to be construed as reflecting the views of the US Department of the Navy.

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM-III-R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
DeWald, P. A. (1971) Folie à deux and the function of reality testing. Psychiatry, 33, 390395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewhurst, K. & Todd, J. (1956) The psychosis of association - folie à deux. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 124, 451459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lasègue, C. & Falret, J. (1877) La folie à deux (ou folie communique). Annals of Medical Psychology, 18, 321355. English translation and bibliography by R. Michaud (1964), American Journal of Psychiatry, 126 (suppl. 4).Google Scholar
Layman, W. A. & Cohen, L. A. (1957) A modem concept of folie à deux. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 125, 412419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazarus, A. (1985) Folie à deux: psychosis by association or genetic determinism? Comprehensive Psychiatry, 26, 129135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lidz, T. (1968) The Person. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Pine, F. (1979) On the pathology of the separation-individuation process as manifested in later clinical work: an attempt at delineation. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 60, 225242.Google Scholar
Spensley, J. (1972) Folie à deux with methylphenidate psychosis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 155, 288290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tucker, L. S. & Cornwell, T. O. (1977) Mother-son folie à deux: A case of attempted patricide. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 11461147.Google ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.