The Term for Shared Psychosis is Folie A Deux

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Regular readers of this website will already have general knowledge on what a psychotic disorder is. But for the benefit of first time readers, I’ll discuss it briefly.

A psychotic disorder is a mental illness that causes abnormal and irrational thinking perceptions. It alters a person’s ability to perceive reality and to respond to its demands in the physical, mental, and emotional sense. A perfect example of this is schizophrenia.

Now, a psychotic disorder usually affects just one individual. But there are cases that it can affect two people. It is commonly called ‘Shared Psychotic Disorder’ or Folie à deux (the folly of two). It is a rare condition in which an otherwise healthy person (also known as the secondary case or the one who ‘catches’ the disorder) shares the delusions of a person with a psychotic disorder (the primary case; the original person with the disorder). So basically its one person ‘sharing’ his or her disorder to an otherwise healthy person. The said person will then also show signs and symptoms of the disorder of the original patient.

fobfolie

If you’re a fan of Fall Out Buy, you might be familiar with their 2008 album entitled Folie à deux. Its album art has a striking shade of red and its background with a boy in a bear suit giving a piggy back ride to a bear. I’m pretty sure the unique album art baffled and amazed both fans and critics of the band.

But the wordplay and the bear is more than just an album art. Its actually a perfect representation of its title. The ‘piggy back’ that the boy in the bear suit may be the shared psychosis in itself, with the bear as the original; bearer of the disorder and the boy on the receiving end. The ‘bear’ is the symbol of the psychological disorder, and as you can see, the boy is already wearing a bear suit, indicating that he has already acquired the psychosis.

What do you guys think? The rarity of the disorder has me fascinated. And I’m wondering, how do you get it anyway? I’ve come across answers that vary from “two people need to be in close relations with each other” to “as long as the other person is susceptible”. What else can be shared with this type of psychosis? And how does it affect the other aspects of their lives together? I’ll be waiting for your answers!

References:

http://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/guide/shared-psychotic-disorder

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