ABSTRACT
Gayle's sad case, which opens this chapter, is a prototypical example of factitious disorder; she never sought any goals other than a starched hospital bed sheet and the attention and care that came with it. Just as kleptomania is often stealing for the thrill of the crime rather than for the stolen item, factitious disorder is often disease forgery for the sake of the forgery itself, coupled with the concomitant benefits of being ill. Widely misunderstood even by health professionals, factitious disorder must be considered in a modern perspective instead of the historical view that erroneously grouped all factitious disorder patients under the extreme category of Munchausen syndrome. Munchausen is the extreme and most dangerous form of the disorder, the pinnacle of a pyramid in which the benign use of illness is the base, factitious disorder is the center, and chronic and severe factitious disorder or Munchausen syndrome is the top.
