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The paradox of necessary uncertainty: Psychopathy, welfare and Munchausen Syndrome in 1950s England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2025

Chris Millard Open the ORCID record for Chris Millard [Opens in a new window]
Chris Millard*
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities, School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, University of Sheffield
*
Email: c.millard@sheffield.ac.uk
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Argument

The cluster of psychiatric concepts that includes “personality disorders,” “psychopathy” and “moral insanity” has long been controversial and uncertain. This article investigates the concept of “psychopathy” in 1950s England and shows how this ambiguity is not a flaw or failure in the concept but absolutely necessary for the role it carries out: policing broad areas of social life. A case of Munchausen syndrome (a type of “psychopathy”) in the late 1950s still functions as a precedent in the welfare system today, denying claimants sickness benefit, “closing a loophole,” and exemplifying the usefulness of this uncertainty.

Keywords

PsychopathyMunchausen Syndromewelfare statepersonality disordersickness benefit

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Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , First View , pp. 1 - 22
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This research was funded in part, by the Wellcome Trust Grant 101454/Z/13/Z. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.

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