Folie à Deux

Digital Painting

2023

Meaning “folly of two” or “shared madness of two”, this is a rare psychiatric condition where one person who has delusions and mental illness can impart these traits into another person. Sometimes it can almost seem like an invasion of the mind by one onto the other.

Mental illness is a difficult thing to fix, as NPR put it once: it’s like having a broken toaster and the only tool you have to fix it is… the same broken toaster. Folie à Deux usually occurs in people who are socially isolated and live in close proximity to one another.

This is also why echo chambers can be dangerous, as some of these delusions and perceptions can be communicated enough to shake other people’s grasp on reality. Especially if the source or the person is trusted. Often in cases of Folie à Deux, there is one more dominant person who initiates or imparts the idea, while the other shares or responds to the primary influence.

Folie à Deux has been credited with a couple of historic crimes. One modern example was an apparent shared psychosis between twins, where they both acted scattered and paranoid. When confronted by police for their safety, one after the other ran out into traffic and were both struck by oncoming cars. You can research articles about Sabina and Ursula Eriksson for this story.

There are many classifications of this affliction.

At its best, it’s shared mischief among close companions. People naturally impress themselves into one another and will sometimes naturally pick up mannerisms or traits. This in itself is not dangerous; we naturally mirror people we spend a lot of time around. This phenomena is this mirroring taken to the extreme.