"Les psychoses passionnelles" reconsidered: a review of de Clérambault's cases and syndrome with respect to mood disorders.

While de Clérambault's name has been linked to erotic delusions, he attempted to describe "pure" erotomania as a paradigm of a broader group of delusions. His own cases and a large number in the English and French literature seem to indicate that severe mood disorder, most likely bipolar affective disorder, is responsible for a portion of the erotomanic delusions. The concept of "les psychoses passionnelles" in the context of French psychiatry is reviewed.