Historical and literary roots of Münchhausen syndromes: as intriguing as the syndromes themselves.

Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-1797) was a famous eighteenth-century teller of extravagant stories. In 1785, Rudolph Erich Raspe anonymously published the first book-form edition of Münchhausen's Tales, and a German translation was made available by Gottfried August Bürger the following year. Since that time, these adventures remained a best seller, and the name of the Baron was twice referred to in psychiatric terminology: "Münchhausen syndrome" coined by Richard Asher in 1951 and "Münchhausen syndrome by proxy" coined by Roy Meadow in 1977. This chapter examines the legitimacy of these terms in the light of historical and literary records and analyzes the synonyms or clinical types as found in medical publications.