[Narrator:] We are going to see two patients,mother and daughter, who are suffering

from Folie a Deux,

or induced insanity,

one of the less common formsof mental disease.

This psychosisdevelops first in one person

and is then communicated to oneor more other persons who have

a close emotional attachmentto the one originally affected.

It is usually seen in couples who livea rather secluded life dependent

on each other.

For instance, a parent and child,

husband and wife,

or two spinster sisters.

It must be understood that the infection

with insanity from one person to another,is a purely psychological phenomenon.

Consequently,physical separation of the two persons

for some time will often sufficeto bring about recovery in the one

who was secondarily affected,

but this is sometimes not practical.

Our two patients, for instance,were separated while the daughter

was receiving treatment.

The mother lost her symptoms,

indeed,

but became so profoundly depressedbecause of the separation from her child,

the only person in the worldfor whom she cares,

that the two hadto be brought together again,

even though the daughter's treatmenthad not been successful.

Within a few days,

the mother had again acceptedall of her daughter's delusional ideas

as reality.

The daughter became psychotic followinga minor operation on her nose.

She expressesa number of grandiose delusions

and delusions of persecution.

For more than a year,

both lived an unhappy,

harassed life,

were filing absurd and groundless suitsand various courts,

were constantly demandingpolice protection,

and were frequently arrestedby immigration officials

because of illegal border crossings.

The mother believes that witchcraftis responsible for their troubles,

while the daughter,

with a more sophisticatedcultural background,

is merely puzzledby mysterious powers from a distance.

Through the ages,

delusional people have always triedto explain their strange beliefs

by appealing to some mechanisms,which at the time were accepted

as scientific truth.

In different centuries,people have invoked witchcraft and magic,

hypnotism, and telepathy,

radio, and today radar,television, and atomic power.

[Patients and medical provider cross-talking]

I'll do everything for you if you take usout from that criminal place into a place

with normal people.

It's a criminal place.-[?] in this criminal place.

-Could you sit down a moment?

Could you sit down a moment,and we talk it over?

-Do you think it's right you taketwo innocent people

and put them in with criminals?Do you know that they're criminals?

You must have known before that.

They're all criminals.-Let's sit down a moment, will you?

-I don't want to go there to them

-If they weren't criminals---Let's sit down and talk the thing over.

-Oh, I'd love to talk this thing over.

-That's horrible.

-You mean here?

-Not this one.This is Douglas Hall.

Can't I talk about some other place?

Must I always talk about the place I'm in?

I'm in Douglas Hall,but I'm referring to a place

that was I was with the peoplethat have hurt me.

-in the hospital.-All these patients,

there's something wrong with them.

They're criminals, and I really mean it.

If you know what criminals---The other patients are criminals?

-The patients are criminals.-Yes.

-Well, I didn't know that.Why?

[Daughter:] Yes, because they have hurt me.

They really have.

If you think I'm kidding you,I'm not kidding you at all.

I think they can killa person somehow from a distance.

If you take a gunman, someone with a gun,a gangster, the police know.

Well, they know they're looking for himbecause he's done something.

Everyone could see it was a gun.

He killed someone,but these people are dangerous.

They can kill people at a distance.

I don't know how they do it.I really mean it.

If they did it,if they hurt me with a gun,

I can tell the policethen nothing will happen.

I don't know how to tell,but they can hurt people.

Honestly, they know how.[Doctor:] But they haven't got guns.

[Daughter:] They haven't got guns.

It's worse if they have...

With a gun, everybodywould believe me when I tell them.

Because a gangster, the policeknow they can't find the gangster.

They know he had a gun.

They have something on him,

but what can you do with peoplethat they haven't got guns

and yet they know how to hurtpeople at a distance?

[Doctor:] They're hurting you or your mother?

[Daughter:] They hurt me.

I'm perfectly healthy.

Only time when they hurt me.

There's nothing wrong with me.

-Yes.

[Mother:] Absolutely they make her sick.