Munchausen syndrome
1
9.5
- noun
- /ˈmʌnˌhaʊzən ˈsɪnˌdroʊm/
- Specialized
:
síndrome de Munchausen
- People with Munchausen syndrome may go to great lengths, such as pretending to have serious health issues, to attract care and concern.
- Munchausen syndrome by proxy
Examples
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She has Munchausen syndrome.
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Doctors often find it challenging to diagnose Munchausen syndrome because the individual presents false symptoms convincingly.
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The condition of Munchausen syndrome leads individuals to feign illness in order to gain sympathy from others.
Synonyms
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9.9
A mental condition where a person makes themselves sick to get medical care or attention
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
While the parts 'Munchausen' (fabrication/outrageous stories) and 'syndrome' (a disorder) cue a disorder involving made-up behaviour, the precise clinical sense—feigning or inducing illness specifically to obtain attention—is an eponymic, culturally-specific meaning that is not fully derivable from the constituents. Learners who know the words may guess general fabrication or deception, but they are unlikely to infer the exact illness-feigning/attention-seeking behaviour without prior exposure.
Etymology
Munchausen syndrome gets its name from Baron Munchausen, a man famous for telling wild, untrue stories about himself. Doctors used his name because people with this condition make up or cause symptoms to get attention, so today it means 'to fake illness to gain attention'.