Feigned madness facts for kids

"Feigned madness" is when someone pretends to have a mental disorder or illness. People do this for different reasons, like to avoid trouble, trick others, or make people less suspicious of them. Sometimes, pretending to be unwell can even allow someone to say things that are usually not allowed or are considered too difficult or dangerous to say.

Modern Examples of Feigned Madness

To Avoid Responsibility

Sometimes, people pretend to be mentally unwell to avoid facing consequences for their actions.

• Vincent Gigante, a powerful crime boss in America, was often seen walking around in his bathrobe and slippers, talking to himself. He later admitted this was all an act to make people think he was not well and avoid being caught by the police.
• Shūmei Ōkawa, a Japanese nationalist, was on trial for serious crimes after World War II. It is said that he pretended to be unwell during his trial.
• Garrett Brock Trapnell, a professional thief, often pretended to have mental health issues. He did this to be sent to mental hospitals instead of prison for his crimes. This trick eventually stopped working when he was tried for aircraft hijacking. A book called The Fox Is Crazy Too was written about him.

To Understand the System from the Inside

Some brave journalists and psychologists have pretended to be mentally ill to learn about how psychiatric hospitals work from the inside.

• The American journalist Nellie Bly pretended to be mentally unwell in 1887. She did this to investigate a mental hospital and wrote a famous book about her experiences called Ten Days in a Mad-House.
• The Rosenhan experiment in the 1970s was a study where researchers pretended to have mental health issues to get admitted to several mental hospitals. They wanted to see what life was like inside these places.
• The Swedish artist Anna Odell created a project to explore how power works in healthcare and how society views mental illness. She did this by pretending to be unwell herself.

Historical Examples of Feigned Madness

• Lucius Junius Brutus lived in ancient Rome. He pretended to be foolish so that the powerful Tarquin family would not see him as a threat. This allowed him to later lead the Roman people in a rebellion against them.
• Ibn al-Haytham, also known as Alhazen, was a brilliant scientist. He was ordered by a ruler to control the flooding of the Nile River. When he realized this task was impossible, he feared the ruler's anger. To avoid punishment, he pretended to be mentally unwell. The ruler believed him and put him under house arrest instead of executing him. Alhazen stayed there safely until the ruler died.
• Kamo, a revolutionary, successfully pretended to be mentally unwell in a German prison in 1909 and then in a Russian prison in 1910. This helped him avoid harsher treatment.
• Ion Ferguson, an Irish psychiatrist in the British Army during World War II, was a prisoner-of-war in Germany. He successfully pretended to be mentally unwell to get sent back home. He also helped two other prisoners do the same.
• Ephrem the Syrian, a well-known Christian writer, avoided becoming a priest by pretending to be mentally unwell. He felt he was not worthy of such an important role.

In Stories and Myths

Odysseus fakes insanity, an early 17th-century tapestry.

• In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet pretends to be mentally unwell. He does this so he can speak freely and plan his revenge. This story might be based on an old legend.
• Madness in Valencia is a play from the 1590s. In it, the main male character pretends to be mentally unwell to get into a mental hospital and escape being punished for a murder. Other characters also pretend to be unwell for love.
• In ancient Greek myths, Odysseus pretended to be mentally unwell to avoid going to war. He yoked a horse and an ox to his plow and sowed salt. Another character, Palamedes, tested him by placing Odysseus's baby son, Telemachus, in front of the plow. Odysseus immediately stopped, showing he was not truly unwell.
• "Feign madness but keep your balance" is one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, which are ancient Chinese military strategies. It means to pretend to be weak or confused to trick your opponents.
• In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the character Randle McMurphy pretends to be mentally unwell. He does this so he can serve his criminal sentence in a mental hospital instead of a regular prison.
• In the play Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello, the main character pretends to be a historical figure, Henry IV, and acts as if he is mentally unwell.
• In the last episode of the British TV show Blackadder called Goodbyeee, Blackadder pretends to be mentally unwell to try and avoid being sent into battle during World War I.
• The main character in the film Shock Corridor is a journalist who fakes being mentally unwell to get inside a mental institution and investigate a story.
• In the movie Ricochet, the character played by Denzel Washington pretends to be mentally unwell to catch a criminal using unusual methods. He even says, "Going insane, it's strangely liberating, isn't it?"
• Primal Fear is a movie based on a book. In the film, a lawyer defends a young altar boy named Aaron Stampler, who is accused of murder. The lawyer discovers Stampler seems to have a dissociative identity disorder with a different personality named "Roy" who committed the crime. However, after Stampler is released, the lawyer realizes Stampler faked the disorder to avoid punishment. This movie was Edward Norton's first film role.
• In the film Scaregivers, the characters played by Jose Manalo and Wally Bayola pretend to be mentally unwell by eating peanut butter disguised as stool samples. This gets them sent to a mental facility.
• In Colditz, a British TV series about prisoners-of-war in World War II, a character named Wing Commander George Marsh pretends to be mentally unwell to escape. He successfully convinces his captors and is sent back to Britain. However, there's a twist: after he returns home, Marsh actually becomes genuinely mentally unwell.

See also

• Münchausen syndrome
• Malingering