Mental Health Week in Review July 12-18

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Beth McHugh

This week in Mental Health we looked at a range of issues including what happens to a mother when she is found by authorities to be suffering from Munchausen disorder by proxy and she has deliberately harmed her child. In Munchausen Mum Escapes Jail Term, we focused on the legal rather than the psychological ramifications of this disorder. We also looked at Dependent Personality Disorder and the effects that this condition has on its sufferers, including a desperate need for reassurance from others, marked difficulty in expressing disagreement with others due to a fear of being abandoned, extreme lack of … Continue reading →

Munchausen Mum Escapes Jail Term

Posted on July 6, 2008 by Beth McHugh

So what happens to a mother when she is found to be suffering from Munchausen by proxy? As we learned in the previous articles on this puzzling condition, Munchausen by proxy or its alternate title, Factitious Disorder by proxy, is a condition whereby the legal guardian, usually the mother, deliberately harms her child in order to draw attention to herself. Such a mother usually presents herself as being very caring and loving towards her child. Because her child is so chronically ill, with a whole range of puzzling and perplexing sicknesses, and the mother is so devoted, she is often … Continue reading →

Munchausen by Proxy: A Special Kind of Child Abuse

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Beth McHugh

We previously looked at the curious phenomena of Munchausen by Proxy (MBP) in the article of that name. Correctly known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, or more simply, factitious disorder by proxy, it customarily involves a female parent or guardian who will use the illness of her child to draw attention to herself. However, it is the parent or guardian who actually makes the child sick, often by chemical means or even injecting urine into the child’s bloodstream in an attempt to cause infection. The parent thrives on the attention of her sick child, yet comes across as a very … Continue reading →