Unusual and Rare Psychological Disorders: A Handbook for Clinical Practice and Research

401 Pages·2016·12.342 MB·English

by  Brian A. Sharpless

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Unusual and Rare Psychological Disorders
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Unusual and Rare
Psychological Disorders
A Handbook for Clinical Practice
and Research
EDITED BY BRIAN A. SHARPLESS
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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© Oxford University Press 2017
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Sharpless, Brian A., editor.
Title: Unusual and rare psychological disorders : a handbook for clinical
practice and research / edited by Brian A. Sharpless.
Description: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2017] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016027899 (print) | LCCN 2016028870 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190245863 | ISBN 9780190245870 (ebook)
Subjects: | MESH: Mental Disorders | Rare Diseases | Handbooks
Classification: LCC RC355 (print) | LCC RC355 (ebook) | NLM WM 34 |
DDC 616.8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016027899
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada
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I dedicate this book to Thomas Wachter, Jamie Weaver,
and Desmond Oathes: three rare and unusual people.
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CONTENTS
Foreword by Peter Tyrer ix
Acknowledgments xiii
About the Editor xv
Contributors xvii
1. Introduction 1
Brian A. Sharpless
SECTION I SLEEP DISORDERS
2. Isolated Sleep Paralysis 7
Brian A. Sharpless and Dan Denis
3. Sexual Behaviors in Sleep 27
Elena del Busto, Frederick R. Stoddard II, and Jourdan S. Cruz
4. Exploding Head Syndrome 39
Brian A. Sharpless and Jacob A. Zimmerman
SECTION II VARIATIONS OF PSYCHOSIS
5. Capgras and Other Misidentification Syndromes 55
Arthur Sinkman
6. Attention Deficit Disorder Psychosis 74
Jan Dirk Blom, Marieke Niemantsverdriet, Anke Spuijbroek, and Sandra Kooji
7. Cotard’s Syndrome 94
Hans Debruyne
SECTION III SEXUAL DISORDERS/DISORDERS OF DESIRE
8. Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder 109
David Goldmeier and Shalini Andrews
9. Necrophilia 124
Sara G. West and Phillip J. Resnick
10. Frotteurism 136
Richard McAnulty
11. Autoerotic Asphyxia and Asphyxiophilia 149
Stephen Hucker
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SECTION IV CULTURE- BOUND DISORDERS
12. Koro—A Genital Retraction Syndrome 167
Petra Garlipp
13. Taijin Kyofusho 177
Brian A. Sharpless, Amy L. Balko, and Jessica Lynn Grom
14. Brain Fag Syndrome 196
Peter O. Ebigbo, Chimezie Lekwas Elekwachi,
and Felix Chukwunenyem Nweze
15. Jerusalem Syndrome and Paris Syndrome: Two Extraordinary
Disorders 208
Eliezer Witztum and Moshe Kalian
16. Dhat Syndrome 223
Rocío Martín- Santos, Ricard Navinés, and Manuel Valdés
17. Ataques de Nervios 242
Roberto Lewis- Fernández and Irene López
SECTION V MISCELLANEOUS DISORDERS
18. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome 265
Jan Dirk Blom
19. Factitious Disorders 288
Brenda Bursch and Robert Haskell
20. Diogenes Syndrome 306
Brian O’Shea
21. Pseudologia Fantastica— Pathological Lying 319
Petra Garlipp
22. Body Integrity Identity Disorder 328
Anna Sedda
Index 345
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FOREWORD
We are in an age when psychiatric diagnosis is under the spotlight— and all its
unsightly blemishes are being revealed. Instead of smooth lines separating each
condition we have jagged craters of uncertainty. Psychiatrists are accused of creat-
ing pathology where none exists, and, therefore, by implication exposing patients
to dangerous treatments with all their adverse effects. As Allan Frances in his
book Saving Normal (2013) writes:
“In aggregate, the new disorders promoted so blithely by my friends would
create tens of millions of new ‘patients.’ I pictured all these normal-e nough
people being captured in DSM- 5’s excessively wide diagnostic net, and I wor-
ried that many would be exposed to medication with possibly dangerous side
effects …”
This case for restricting diagnosis to a minimum of conditions, for which we
have firm and unassailable data, appears completely convincing. This could be
called the minimalist or Hairshirt diagnostic approach.
But there is another argument to make, which is equally compelling. Time after
time I have seen patients who, when I have explained a diagnosis, however imper-
fectly, smile in relief and say, “Good, I’m so relieved, I thought I must be the only
person in the world to be like this.” Even if the condition is improperly described,
has no obvious links to any other form of pathology, or in colloquial terms is com-
pletely wacky, it has substance to the people who are suffering from it. This could
be called the Validation diagnostic approach.
Brian Sharpless’s new book trumpets the Validation approach loudly and con-
vincingly. Whether we diagnose conditions imperfectly or not, we should not
simply put them into the standard box called Not Otherwise Specified, an archaic
and complete failure of diagnosis that can be summarized as ANTEDILUVIAN
(A Notional Term Essentially Describing, In Language Unashamedly Vacuous, It’s
Absolutely Nothing).
When we come across something new in science we go through a set of ques-
tions: Is this genuinely new? Why hasn’t it occurred or been recognized before?
Is it replicable? How did it happen? What is its outcome? Of course, we cannot