About
Munchausen By Internet (MBI) is a psychiatric disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance from online venues such as chat rooms, message boards, Internet Relay Chats and other social media platforms. Those affected may fabricate or induce mental or physical health problems on themselves (known as Munchausen’s Syndrome) but they may also do it on people they have in their care (known as Munchausen By Proxy).
Origin
In June 1998, psychiatrist and Munchausen expert Marc Feldman issued a three’page article in the Western Journal of Medicine[1] dealing with the Munchausen By Proxy disorder while also highlighting behavioral patterns that he referred to as “Virtual Factitious Disorder”, noting that the emerging popularity of the Internet, gaining traction in the mid to late 1990s, may have helped spreading a new form of Munchausen’s Syndrome in online communities. As he wrote (excerpt):
The manner in which false illness is communicated is apparently relatively unconstrained as well. With the exponential increase in the number of people with internet access, “virtual” support groups have multiplied.
[…]
It is now emerging, however, that these groups simultaneously provide an inexpensive, convenient and readily accessible forum for people who choose to misrepresent themselves as ill.
Feldman later coined the term “Munchausen By Internet” in a July 2000 publication for the Southern Medical Journal[2].
Spread
On November 28th 2000, Dr Theodore Dalrymple wrote a column titled Desperately seeking sympathy on news site The Guardian[3], commenting on Feldman’s work and the phrase.
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Notable Examples
Garnett-Paul Spears’ Death
Garnett-Paul Spears was a five-year-old boy and the subject of Garnett’s Journey, a personal blog run by his mother Lacey Spears to chronicle his lifelong battle with chronic illnesses, who mysteriously died as a result of a lethal-level intake of sodium during a hospital visit in June 2014. Shortly after Garnett was pronounced brain dead, Lacey Spears was charged with murder on suspicion that she poisoned her son with a fatal dose of sodium, which prompted many to speculate that she had been making her child ill for online attention and sympathy, a psychiatric disorder known as Münchausen syndrome by proxy.
For more information about this event, please read the related Know Your Meme article.
Belle Gibson
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Catfish
Catfish is a slang term used to describe someone who assumes false accounts on social networking sites for the sake of developing online relationships with strangers or pretending to be in a relationship. It is related to Munchausen By Internet in the fact that the affected person may create entire fake online personas with their respective fake illnesses and disabilities in order to attract attention and sympathy.
For more information, please read the related Know Your Meme article.
External References
[1]National Center for Biotechnology Information – ‘Virtual’ factitious disorders and Munchausen by proxy. / West J Med. 1998 Jun; 168(6): 537–539.
[2]Medscape.com – Munchausen by Internet / 2000 Jul;93(7):669-72.
[3]The Guardian – Desperately seeking sympathy