# Munchausen By Internet Marc Feldman, a psychiatrist who studies factitious disorders, coined 'Munchausen By Internet' in a July 2000 Southern Medical Journal paper to label people who fake illness in online venues for sympathy[1]. The Guardian picked up the diagnosis that November[2], and by the mid-2000s LiveJournal fake-death posts and the Kaycee Nicole hoax gave the term its best-known case files[4]. ## Origin The groundwork was laid by Alabama psychiatrist Marc Feldman, a specialist in Munchausen's Syndrome. In June 1998 Feldman published a three-page piece in the Western Journal of Medicine on Munchausen By Proxy that also sketched what he called 'Virtual Factitious Disorder,' arguing that the fast-growing late-1990s Internet could carry factitious illness behavior into chat rooms, Usenet groups, and early message boards[9]. Feldman coined the specific label 'Munchausen By Internet' two years later, in a July 2000 Southern Medical Journal paper titled 'Munchausen by Internet: detecting factitious illness and crisis on the Internet'[1]. Four months after that, Theodore Dalrymple's November 28, 2000 Guardian column 'Desperately seeking sympathy' summarized Feldman's warning signs for a general audience and helped move the diagnosis out of medical literature and into mainstream reporting[2]. - **Platform:** Southern Medical Journal (coinage) / The Guardian (popularization) - **Creator:** Marc Feldman - **Date:** 2000 ## Overview Munchausen By Internet, abbreviated MBI, describes a pattern where a user invents or exaggerates a serious illness, injury, or psychiatric crisis inside online communities to attract attention, reassurance, or sympathy from strangers[1]. Classic signs documented by Feldman include long illness updates with inconsistent medical details, dramatic turns timed to flagging comment counts, imaginary doctors or relatives who post on the sufferer's behalf, and announcements of the sufferer's death delivered by one of those invented contacts[5]. The diagnosis sits inside the Munchausen family of factitious disorders. When a person feigns illness on themself it is Munchausen's Syndrome, and when a caregiver induces or fabricates illness in a dependent it is Munchausen By Proxy[3]. Journalists covering MBI often document long-running fake patient blogs, support-group members whose cancer timelines never add up, and parents whose sick-child journals attract donation drives before investigators look closer[8]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Munchausen By Internet? Munchausen By Internet is a factitious disorder behavior in which a person fabricates serious illness or trauma online to attract sympathy from strangers in forums, chat rooms, and social platforms[1]. ### Where did Munchausen By Internet come from? Psychiatrist Marc Feldman coined the term in a July 2000 Southern Medical Journal paper[1], expanding a 'Virtual Factitious Disorder' concept he had sketched in the Western Journal of Medicine two years earlier[9]. ### What does Munchausen By Internet mean? The label names a pattern of feigned disease or psychiatric crisis in online spaces where the user seeks attention, reassurance, or sympathy without a clear external motive like money[2]. ### How do you use Munchausen By Internet? Writers and moderators use it to describe a suspected case when a user shows Feldman's warning signs: implausible medical details, convenient relapses, imaginary doctors or relatives posting on their behalf, and tragedy timed to fading comment counts[5]. ### Is Munchausen By Internet still popular? The term is still reached for whenever an online illness story collapses, and news outlets returned to Feldman's framework through at least Slate's March 2015 coverage of the Lacey Spears case[8]. ## References 1. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10923952]() 2. [http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2000/nov/28/healthandwellbeing.health3]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/munchausen-by-internet]() 4. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaycee_Nicole]() 5. [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-03/24/qa-munchausen-by-internet.aspx]() 6. [http://www.dailydot.com/society/munchausen-by-internet-fake-online-fake-death/]() 7. [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-internet-of-pain-when-suffering-goes-viral]() 8. [http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/users/2015/03/lacey_spears_might_have_had_munchausen_by_proxy_by_internet_are_internet.html]() 9. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1305082/?page=1]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/munchausen-by-internet Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library