ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case history of Eva, a young borderline patient with occasional psychotic breakdowns, with whom psychoanalysis and techniques aimed at strengthening her sense of body and self-image, were used. During the last three years of eight years of analysis, Eva claimed to have colon cancer. That her cancer was an invention of her mind was unknown to me and the physicians working in some of our most prestigious hospitals whom she contacted for control of “the side effects of cancer treatment.” Her case offers important insights into her reason and purpose for the development of a factitious disorder, often referred to as Munchausen syndrome.
