Therapy Bits

GDJ on Pixabay

In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms.

This week’s term: Munchausen syndrome by proxy

While Munchausen by proxy is likely the name that’s most recognizable, the name for the disorder in the current version of the DSM (the DSM-5) is factitious disorder imposed on another .  I’ll use the acronym FDIA for the rest of the post since it’s so much shorter.

So, who is Munchausen and what is their disorder?  Baron Munchausen is a fictional character from the 18th century German novel Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia.  Baron Munchausen told wildly exaggerated tales of things that had happened to him.  In 1951, Munchausen’s Syndrome was coined by Dr. Richard Asher to describe patients who presented with fabricated accounts and symptoms of illness.

Munchausen by proxy/FDIA refers to an individual who feigns illness in another…