De Clerambault’s syndrome, also known as erotomania, is a psychological condition where the sufferer believes that a person is in love with them, often someone of higher social status. The syndrome has been recognized since ancient times and has been the subject of famous cases and works of fiction.
De Clerambault’s syndrome, also called erotomania, is a psychological condition in which the sufferer is under the illusion that a certain person is in love with him or her. Typically, the object of this delusion is of a higher social class than that of the patient and is only an acquaintance – at most – in reality. For the person with the condition, everything the object of affection does takes on a special meaning that it doesn’t actually have. It is named after Gaetan Gatian de Clerambault, a French psychiatrist who wrote a comprehensive article on the condition in 1921.
This condition has been recognized in some form since long before Gaetan Gatian de Clerambault published his paper, although there is no standard term for it. Ancient authors, including Hippocrates and Plutarch, describe cases that would probably be diagnosed today as de Clerambault syndrome. Psychiatrist Jacques Ferrand is credited with the first mention of the syndrome in psychiatric literature in 1623. The concept has changed over the centuries, as it was originally likened to an illness caused by unrequited love, and only relatively recently has it been understood such as a delusional belief that another person is making romantic advances.
There have been many famous cases of de Clerambault syndrome, most of which manifested itself through stalking behaviors. The subject of many of these cases was a celebrity of some sort, whether in the fields of politics or entertainment. One of the most notorious cases involved John Hinckley, Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster, who believed she wanted a sign of her devotion.
De Clerambault’s syndrome has also often been the subject of fiction. Nikolai Gogol’s classic story, “Diary of a Madman” (1835), describes a descent into madness that begins with a case of the condition. Ian McEwan’s novel Enduring Love (1997), adapted for film in 2004, tells the story of a homosexual case of the condition. The syndrome is also the subject of the 2002 French film He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not, starring Amelie’s Audrey Tautou.
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