Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:11:30.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Pathological Extensions of Love

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Paul E. Mullen*
Affiliation:
Monash University, Australia
Michele Pathé
Affiliation:
Forensic Psychiatry Centre, Rosanna, Australia
*
Professor P. E. Mullen, Forensic Psychiatry Centre, PO Box 266, Rosanna, Victoria 3084, Australia

Abstract

Background

Clarification is still required of the nature of pathological love.

Method

A series is presented of 16 personally assessed cases with pathologies of love (erotomania).

Results

The pathologies of love usually involve a mixture of morbid infatuation and a morbid belief in being loved. They occur both in a symptomatic form, as part of an underlying mental illness, as well as in a pure form, where their emergence is to some extent understandable in a vulnerable personality. These disorders often go unrecognised to the detriment of clinical management.

Conclusions

Pathologies of love create distress and disruption to the patient, and place the objects of their unwarranted affection at risk of at best harassment and at worst violence. Although this series of cases, which is drawn predominantly from forensic practice, overemphasises the risk of overt violence, the distress occasioned by pursuit and harassment alone should not be underestimated.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994 

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.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Barthes, R. (1977) A Lover's Discourse: Fragments (trans Howard, R.). New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
de Clérambault, C. G. (1942) Les psychoses passionelles. In Oeuvres Psychiatriques, pp. 315322. Paris: Presses Universitaires.Google Scholar
Drevets, W. C. & Rubin, E. H. (1987) Erotomania and senile dementia of Alzheimer type. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 400402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunlop, J. L. (1988) Does erotomania exist between women? British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 830833.Google Scholar
El-Assra, A. (1989) Erotomania in a Saudi woman. British Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 553555.Google Scholar
Ellis, P. & Mellsop, G. (1985) de Clérambault's syndrome: a nosological entity? British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 9095.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eminson, S., Gillett, T. & Hassanyeh, F. (1988) Homosexual erotomania. British Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 128129.Google Scholar
Enoch, M. D. & Trethowan, W. H. (1979) Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes. Bristol: John Wright.Google Scholar
esquirol, J. E. D. (1845) Mental Maladies: A Treatise On Insanity (trans de Saussure, R., 1965). New York: Hafner.Google Scholar
Evans, D. L., Jechel, L. L. & Slott, N. E. (1982) Erotomania: a variant of pathological mourning. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 46, 507520.Google Scholar
Fisher, M. (1990) Personal Love. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Gaddall, , el, Y. Y. (1989) De Clérambault's syndrome (erotomania) in organic delusional syndrome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 714716.Google Scholar
Gillett, T., Eminson, S. R. & Hassanyeh, F. (1990) Primary and secondary erotomania: clinical characteristics and follow up. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 82, 6569.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, B. (1921) The Psychology of Insanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hayes, M. & O'Shea, B. (1985) Erotomania in Schneider positive schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 661663.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraepelin, E. (1913) Manic Depressive Insanity and Paranoia (trans Barclay, M., 1921). Edinburgh: E. S. Livingstone.Google Scholar
Krafft-Ebing (1879) Text Book of Insanity (trans Chaddock, C. G., 1904). Philadelphia: F. A. Davies.Google Scholar
Kretschmer, E. (1918) Der Senvitive Beziehungswahn. Berlin: Springer. (Selection translated as “The sensitive delusion of reference.” In Themes & Variations in European Psychiatry (eds S. R. Hirsch & M. Shepherd, 1974). Bristol: Wright.)Google Scholar
Kretschmer, E. (1952) A Text Book of Medical Psychology (trans Strauss, E. B.). London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Lovett Doust, J. W. & Christie, H. (1978) The pathology of love: some clinical variants of de Clérambault's syndrome. Social Science and Medicine, 12, 99106.Google Scholar
Low, P. W., Jeffries, J. C. & Bonnie, R. J. (1986) The Trial of John W. Hinckley Jr: A Case Study in the Insanity Defence. Mineola, NY: Foundation Press.Google Scholar
Meloy, R. J. (1989) Unrequited love and the wish to kill. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 53, 477492.Google Scholar
Mullen, P. E. (1992) Jealousy: that pathology of passion. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 593601.Google Scholar
Mullen, P. E. & Pathé, M. (1995) Stalking and the pathologies of love. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munro, A., Obrien, J. V. & Ross, D. (1985) Two cases of “pure” or “primary” erotomania successfully treated with pimozide. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 30, 619621.Google Scholar
Perez, C. (1993) Stalking: when does obsession become a crime? American Journal of Criminal Law, 20, 263280.Google Scholar
Raskin, D. E. & Sullivan, K. E. (1974) Erotomania. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 10331035.Google Scholar
Retterstol, N. & Opjordsmoen, S. (1991) Erotomania erotic self reference psychosis in old maids: a long term follow up. Psychopathology, 24, 388397.Google Scholar
Rudden, M., Sweeney, J. & Frances, A. (1983) A comparison of delusional disorders in women and men. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 15751578.Google ScholarPubMed
Rudden, M., Sweeney, J. & Frances, A. (1990) Diagnosis and clinical course of erotomanic and other delusional patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 625628.Google Scholar
Scheler, M. (1912) The Nature of Sympathy (trans Heath, P., 1954). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Scruton, R. (1986) Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Seeman, M. V. (1978) Delusional loving. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 12651267.Google Scholar
Segal, J. (1989) Erotomania revisited: from Kraepelin to DSM–III–R. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 12611266.Google Scholar
Sims, A. (1988) Symptoms in the Mind. London: Ballière Tindall.Google Scholar
Singer, I. (1966) The Nature of Love. Vol. 1. Plato to Luther. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Singer, I. (1987) The Nature of Love. Vol. 2. Courtly and Romantic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Singer, S. F. & Cummings, J. L. (1967) de Clérambault's syndrome in organic affective disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 404407.Google Scholar
Solomon, R. C. (1981) Love: Emotion, Myth and Metaphor. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Taylor, P., Mahendra, B. & Gunn, J. (1983) Erotomania in males. Psychological Medicine, 13, 645650.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trethowan, W. H. (1967) Erotomania – an old disorder reconsidered. Alta, 2, 7986.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.