About

Munchausen By Internet (MBI) is a psychiatric disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance from online venues such as chat rooms, message boards, Internet Relay Chats and other social media platforms. Those affected may fabricate or induce mental or physical health problems on themselves (known as Munchausen's Syndrome) but they may also do it on people they have in their care (known as Munchausen By Proxy).

Origin

In June 1998, psychiatrist and Munchausen expert Marc Feldman issued a three'page article in the Western Journal of Medicine^[1] dealing with the Munchausen By Proxy disorder while also highlighting behavioral patterns that he referred to as "Virtual Factitious Disorder", noting that the emerging popularity of the Internet, gaining traction in the mid to late 1990s, may have helped spreading a new form of Munchausen's Syndrome in online communities. As he wrote (excerpt):

The manner in which false illness is communicated is apparently relatively unconstrained as well. With the exponential increase in the number of people with internet access, "virtual" support groups have multiplied.
[…]
It is now emerging, however, that these groups simultaneously provide an inexpensive, convenient and readily accessible forum for people who choose to misrepresent themselves as ill.

Feldman later coined the term "Munchausen By Internet" in a July 2000 publication for the Southern Medical Journal^[2].

Spread

On November 28th 2000, Dr Theodore Dalrymple wrote a column titled Desperately seeking sympathy on news site The Guardian^[3], commenting on Feldman's work and the phrase. One year later, In June 2001, Village Voice's writer Francine Russo wrote a piece about the phenomenon in an article titled Cybersicknesss^[9].
On March 25th, 2009, UK online magazine Wired conducted an interview with Feldman regarding his work on Munchausen By Internet^[5].
Through out the beginning of the 21st century, many online news outlets showed interest in this new psychiatric phenomenon, especially on the reasons behind the need to make up lies online in order to gain attention. In August 2012, The Daily Dot ran an article about fake online personas, referencing a surge in fake death announcements that occured in the LiveJournal community circa 2004^[6] as examples. In June 2014, Vice magazine ran a piece on the viral potential of suffering and pain online^[7].
More recently, Slate staff writter Amanda Heiss wrote an article in March 2015 about the Munchausen By Internet syndrome, reflecting on the impact of social media and internet on society and the individuals^[8].

Various Examples

Kaycee Nicole

Kaycee Nicole Swenson^[4] was a fictitious persona played by an American woman named Debbie Swenson. Between 1999 and May 20th, 2001, when Swenson confessed to the hoax on her blog, she impersonated the role of Kaycee, a teenage girl suffering from terminal leukemia, whose online webpage and photograph were first created for fun by Swenson's daugther and a group of friends one year prior, in 1998.
This hoax became well-known as an earlier Munchausen By Internet event.

Desiree Jennings Dystonia Hoax

Desiree Jennings Dystonia Hoax refers to an August 2009 Inside Edition segment in which Ashburn, Virginia cheerleader Desiree Jennings claims to have contracted a crippling illness after receiving an influenza vaccination. The news report inspired a video remix series with different music tracks dubbed over footage of Jennings shaking erratically.

Garnett-Paul Spears' Death

Garnett-Paul Spears was a five-year-old boy and the subject of Garnett’s Journey, a personal blog run by his mother Lacey Spears to chronicle his lifelong battle with chronic illnesses, who mysteriously died as a result of a lethal-level intake of sodium during a hospital visit in June 2014. Shortly after Garnett was pronounced brain dead, Lacey Spears was charged with murder on suspicion that she poisoned her son with a fatal dose of sodium, which prompted many to speculate that she had been making her child ill for online attention and sympathy, a psychiatric disorder known as Münchausen syndrome by proxy.

Catfish

Catfish is a slang term used to describe someone who assumes false accounts on social networking sites for the sake of developing online relationships with strangers or pretending to be in a relationship. It is related to Munchausen By Internet in the fact that the affected person may create entire fake online personas with their respective fake illnesses and disabilities in order to attract attention and sympathy.

External References