Husbands and Wives Admitted to Mental Hospital

Abstract

There have been a few studies of the nature and frequency of mental disorder in the offspring of marriages in which both parents were known to have been mentally ill (Schulz, 1940; 1941, Elsaesser, 1952; Lewis, 1957). A number of psychoses affecting both husband and wife have also been described as examples of folie à deux. Gralnick (1942) reviewed the literature, and found altogether 118 cases of folie à deux, but Ascher (1949) has concluded that such cases are commoner than would appear. The majority of those reported have involved blood relatives, in whom the implications of a “psychosis of association” are questionable, because of similarities in their genetic endowment (Kallmann and Mickey, 1946). However, Gralnick recorded 26 cases of folie à deux involving husband and wife.