Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome

This text is different from most BodySignal texts. Here, it is not the body of the one who suffers that speaks — here, the behaviour speaks of the one who causes others to suffer in order to be seen themselves. Munchausen by proxy syndrome describes a pattern in which a person invents, exaggerates, or actively induces illness symptoms in another — most often in a child, sometimes in an elderly parent, sometimes in a partner. The person appears outwardly as a devoted, caring relative. Inwardly, they hold the other in place with an invisible hand, because only this role gives them the sense of existing.