Munchausen syndrome

American  

[muhn-chou-zuhn sin-drohm, muhnch-hou-zuhn] / ˈmʌnˌtʃaʊ zən ˌsɪn droʊm, ˈmʌntʃˌhaʊ zən /

noun

Psychiatry.

1. a factitious disorder in which otherwise healthy individuals seek to hospitalize themselves with feigned or self-induced pathology in order to receive surgical or other medical treatment.

---

Etymology

Origin of Munchausen syndrome

1950–55; named after Baron von Münchhausen ( def. ), whose fictionalized accounts of his own experiences suggest symptoms of the disorder