"She screamed that I had to die": when erotomania kills
"She pushed me down the stairwell screaming that I had to die." This is the sentence that Guillaume, who had become the target of an erotomaniac, uttered on the show "Ça commence aujourd'hui", presented by the Faustine Bollaert. A sentence that still resonates, long after the broadcast in March 2022...
Words that testify to an extreme weariness in the face of the consequences of erotomania. Even more serious, the man explains that "it's all or nothing, either she (the erotomaniac) ends her life, or she ends mine". Killing oneself or killing oneself: this is the third phase of the illness, because it is indeed a psychotic pathology translated by the "delusional conviction of being loved" according to the words of Laurent Karila, one of the psychiatrists referring to the show. The erotomaniac experiences three phases in the development of the illness, which can be fixed or recurring:
hope: the conviction that the target of his obsession will fall in love;
despair: the other does not respond to the signals, we lock ourselves in depression;
resentment: anger fueled by non-reaction, which can lead to suicide or murder.
The conviction of being loved becomes an obsession, leading to a kind of stalking, intense harassment that leads to a physical meeting. Everything is interpreted, harmless gestures, banal words, likes on social media networks... Everything is a sign that the other has feelings for the erotomaniac, while he is completely foreign to the romantic obsession.
Men and women can suffer from this pathology, although, according to specialists, there are three times more women affected than men. We remember Fatal Attraction, Anna M or even A la folie… pas du tout… Remarkable films, reflections of the absolute delirium of these “imaginary lovers”.
(MH with AsD/Source: RTBF/Illustration: Unsplash)