Patient Or Pretender Inside the Strange World of Factitious Disorders

Jenny's two-year battle with breast cancer was an inspiring lesson for all who knew her. Despite her progressive weakness and dramatic hair and weight loss, this courageous young woman managed to maintain a positive outlook, determined to make the most of what little time was left to her. And through it all, Jenny's family, friends, and coworkers lavished sympathy and attention on her, doing all they could to make her life as comfortable as possible. But gradually, as an intricate web of deceit unraveled, it became horribly clear to everyone that Jenny's illness was nothing but an elaborate hoax. Jenny's story is just one of the riveting accounts of factitious disorders vividly portrayed in Patient or Pretender. Recounting fascinating case histories, psychiatrists Marc D. Feldman and Charles V. Ford take us on a journey into the lives and minds of people whose craving for attention leads them to fake illnesses, sometimes to the point of death. The extremes to which some lactitious patients will go defy the imagination...and often medical knowledge as well. We read of people who inject themselves with bacteria to induce infections, who bleed themselves to produce anemia, who eat rat poison...whatever it takes to gain admission to a hospital. Others fabricate emotional symptoms, such as extreme depression, or engage in outlandish behavior to feign psychosis. We also read of people with Munchausen's syndrome, "professional patients" whose lives are spent traveling from hospital to hospital often successfully duping doctors into performing dangerous and expensive diagnostic and surgical procedures. Even more disturbing are the shocking tales of mothers with Munchausen by Proxy, who deliberately induce illnesses in their children in order to elicit sympathy or to play the role of heroic caregiver. Drs. Feldman and Ford recount these stories with compassion, offering profound insights into the workings of the bruised psyches of these "disease forgers." We learn about what compels these people to take extraordinary risks to obtain sympathy and emotional fulfillment. In addition, we learn about the warning signs that doctors look for and the various approaches to treatment. The authors also explore the toll taken on the family, friends, and health professionals who provide these "great pretenders" with emotional, medical, and financial support, as well as the enormous cost to society at large in unnecessary health costs. Above all, Patient or Pretender offers us profound insights into the human condition and a painful reminder of the universal need for love and recognition that informs so much of who we are and what we do.