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Socio-Clinical Substrates of Folie à Deux

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Som Datta Soni
Affiliation:
Prestwich Hospital, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 7BL
Gerald Joseph Rockley
Affiliation:
Prestwich Hospital, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 7BL

Extract

Folie à deux, the psychosis of association, has been defined as ‘the transference of delusional ideas and/or abnormal behaviour from one person to one or more individuals who have been in close association with the primary affected person’ (8). At least three conditions have been regarded as pre-requisite for its diagnosis: (a) definite evidence that the partners have been intimately associated, (b) identical content of the delusional ideas in both the patients, and (c) unequivocal evidence that the partners share, support and accept each other's delusions (7).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

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