Abnormal Psychology

Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders 531

Shared psychotic disorder

The psychotic disorder in which an individual

develops delusions as a result of his or her

close relationship with another person who

has delusions as part of a psychotic disorder;

also known as folie à deux.

Diana Napolis suffered from persecutory delusions about fi lmmaker Stephen Spielberg and singer and
actress Jennifer Love Hewitt; she believed that both were controlling her brain (Soto, 2003).

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images Brian To/FilmMagic/Getty Images

• Somatic.The false belief that the patient is experiencing bodily sensations (such

as insects on the skin) or bodily malfunctions (such as a foul odor coming from

a body cavity).

• Jealous. The belief that the patient’s partner is unfaithful. This belief is based on

tiny amounts of “evidence,” such as the partner’s arriving home a few minutes late.

The patient is likely to confront his or her partner with the “evidence” and may try

to “prevent” further unfaithful acts by following or attacking the partner.

People with delusional disorder—like those with the paranoid subtype of

schizophrenia—may appear normal when they are not talking about their delu-

sions: Their behavior may not be particularly odd nor their functioning otherwise

impaired. The prognosis for people with this disorder is mixed. For some, the

delusions may ebb and fl ow, sometimes interfering with daily life and sometimes

fading into the background and not having any effect; for others, the delusions may

dwindle away and not reappear.

Henry Genain, the quads’ father, exhibited some signs of delusional disorder

of the jealous type: Soon after he met Maud, the Genains’ mother, he asked her

to marry him, but she refused. He pestered her for months, threatening that if she

didn’t marry him, neither of them would live to marry anyone else. On multiple

occasions, he threatened to kill himself or her. After she consented to marry him

(because his family begged her to), he didn’t want her to socialize with anyone else,

including her family: “I want you with me. I’m not going to let you go among other

people.... I wouldn’t trust no woman. All women are weak. I’m not going to trust

you either” (Rosenthal, 1963, p. 33). His jealousy was so extreme that he didn’t

want her to go out of the house because people walking down the street might smile

at her. When the quads were 7 years old, Mrs. Genain thought of leaving Henry, but

he told her, “If you leave me, I will fi nd you where you go and I’ll kill you” (Rosenthal,

1963, p. 69). She believed him and stayed with him.

Shared Psychotic Disorder

Have you ever worried about “catching” a psychological disorder? Probably not.

However, in rare cases, something very much like this seems to occur. Perhaps the

most exotic psychotic disorder is shared psychotic disorder (orfolie à deux, which

is French for “paired madness”), which occurs when an individual develops delusions

as a result of his or her close relationship with another person who has delusions as