Sickened : the memoir of a Munchausen by proxy childhood / Julie Gregory ; foreword by Marc D. Feldman.

New York : Bantam Books, 2003.

ix, 244 pages, 6 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm

The author describes growing up as the victim of Munchausen by proxy, a form of child abuse in which her mother invented or caused a series of illnesses and ailments, and her struggle to escape her mother's problems to rebuild her life. A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor's examining table, missing yet another day of school. Just twelve, she is tall, skinny, and weak. It is four o'clock, and she hasn't been allowed to eat anything all day. Her mother, on the other hand, seems curiously excited. She's about to suggest open-heart surgery on her child to "get to the bottom of this." She checks her teeth for lipstick and, as the doctor enters, shoots the girl a warning glance. This child will not ruin her plans. From early childhood, the author was continually X-rayed, medicated, and operated on, in the vain pursuit of an illness that was created in her mother's mind. Munchausen by proxy (MBP) is the world's most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse, in which the caretaker, almost always the mother, invents or induces symptoms in her child because she craves the attention of medical professionals. Many MBP children die, but the author not only survived, she escaped the powerful orbit of her mother's madness and rebuilt her identity as a vibrant, healthy young woman. This is a remarkable memoir that speaks in an original and distinctive Midwestern voice, rising to indelible scenes in prose of scathing beauty and fierce humor. Punctuated with her actual medical records, it re-creates the bizarre cocoon of her family's isolated double-wide trailer, their wild shopping sprees and gun-waving confrontations, the astonishing naivete of medical professionals and social workers. It also exposes the twisted bonds of terror and love that roped her family together, including the love that made a child willing to sacrifice herself to win her mother's happiness. The realization that the sickness lay in her mother, not in herself, would not come to her until adulthood. But when it did, it would strike like lightning. Through her painful metamorphosis, she discovered the courage to save her own life, and, ultimately, the life of the girl her mother had found to replace her. This memoir takes us to new places in the human heart and spirit. It is an unforgettable story, unforgettably told.

Online version: Gregory, Julie, 1969- Sickened. New York : Bantam Books, 2003

English

May 07, 2024

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy