Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 30, Issue 1, January–February 1989, Pages 26-30
Comprehensive Psychiatry

Mummification and folie à deux

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-440X(89)90115-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Mummification is the preservation of the effects and/or corpse of a loved one. Psychiatric literature regarding this condition is reviewed and a case is presented in which a mother's paranoid psychosis is discovered following her apparent mummification of her son's corpse. In retrospect, it appears that a diagnosis of folie à deux pertained to this pair. The authors contend that mummification may represent the outcome of a shared delusional system and that failure to establish psychiatric diagnoses in those who practice mummification has been the result of inherent difficulties in diagnosing paranoid disorders.

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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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