Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-27T00:40:21.847Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Erotomania in males

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Pamela Taylor ,
B. Mahendra  and
John Gunn
Pamela Taylor*
Affiliation:
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London, St Bartholemew's Hospital, London
B. Mahendra
Affiliation:
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London, St Bartholemew's Hospital, London
John Gunn
Affiliation:
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, London, St Bartholemew's Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr P. J. Taylor, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

In anglophonic countries erotomania has traditionally been regarded as a female disorder of little more than curiosity value. The French literature recognizes the disorder in males, but as a rarity. In a recently collected group of violent male offenders the syndrome proved to be fairly common. The offending behaviour was invariably triggered by the core symptom. A description is provided of four cases whose level of aggression was low but appeared to be directly related to the firmness with which the delusion of being loved was held. The disorder of these men can be regarded as a variant of one of the major functional psychoses, but for the purposes of predicting behaviour and management there may be advantages in treating it as a syndrome in a similar taxonomic category as that of morbid jealousy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , August 1983 , pp. 645 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brill, A. A. (1913). Psychoanalysis. p. 175. Saunders: London.Google Scholar
Clérambault, C. G. de (1942). Les psychoses passionelles. Oeuvres psychiatriques, pp. 315–322. Presses Universitaires: Paris.Google Scholar
Enoch, M. D. & Trethowan, W. H. (1979). De Clérambault's Syndrome. In Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes, pp. 15–35. John Wright & Sons: Bristol.Google Scholar
Esquirol, J. E. D. (1965). Mental Maladies: a Treatise on Insanity (transl. Hunt, E. K.). Hafner: New York.Google Scholar
Ferdiére, G. (1937). L'érotomanie, illusion délirante d'étre aimé. G. Douin: Paris.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1963). The libido theory and Narcissism (first published 1917). In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, vol. 16 (transl. Strachey, J.), chapter 26. Hogarth Press: London.Google Scholar
Hart, B. (1921). The Psychology of Insanity, p. 122. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hollender, M. H. & Callahan, A. S. (1975). Erotomania or De Clérambault's Syndrome. Archives of General Psychiatry 32, 1574–1576.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jonckheere, J. (1971). L'érotomanie et la relation avec autrui dans les psychoses. A propos de 13 cas. Acta Psychiatrica Belgica 71, 344–382.Google Scholar
Mowat, R. R. (1966). Morbid Jealousy and Murder. Tavistock Publications: London.Google Scholar
Portemer, A. (1962). De l'érotomanie au point de vue médico-légal. Thèse Médicale: Paris.Google Scholar
Raskin, D. E. & Sullivan, K. E. (1974). Erotomania. American Journal of Psychiatry 131, 1033–1035.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rudden, M., Gilmore, M. & Frances, A. (1980). Erotomania: a separate entity. American Journal of Psychiatry 137, 1262–1263.Google Scholar
Schachter, M. (1977). Erotomanie ou conviction délirante d'être aimé. Contribution à la psychopathologie de la vie amoureuse. Annales médico-psychologiques (Paris) 135, 729–748.Google Scholar
Seeman, M. V. (1978). Delusional loving. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 1265–1267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed