Erotomania (De Clerambault’s Syndrome)

Erotomania is a psychiatric syndrome that refers to the delusional belief that a person of a higher social status e.g. a celebrity, is in love with you. Individuals may even go as far as to try to approach or talk to them even if it is done by stalking, threatening, or menacing behavior. In some cases, this has led to fatal outcomes for the victim including assault. They may find it impossible to give up on the thought that the other person loves them back even if there is evidence that this is not true. Erotomania can be associated with delusions and manic behaviors. Example symptoms include;

• Obsessively consuming the media that is related ot the person in question, especially if they are a celebrity.
• Being convinced that the person in question is sending you secret codes through their gestures, secret messages behind what they are saying, and glances through any type of media you may be watching them.
• Feeling jealous due to the belief that the person in question may be in contact with another lover and that they might not be faithful to you.
• Constantly sending letters and gifts in order to try to contact them.

There are a few more but this is just to give an idea. More can be read in the link down below.

Erotomania can either last over a long period of time or in shorter episodes also known as psychotic breaks. It can involve a sudden worsening of the delusion as well as other psychotic features and can also occur in disorders such as schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. The list of symptoms above sounds like how normal fangirls sometimes behave. Over the years I have been listening to Kpop and at some point really got into the culture around it following what is new regarding the drop of singles, drop of albums from different girl & boy bands, and even getting news about “scandals.”  When I got into the fandom for the boyband “BTS” a few years ago I noticed that fans in Korea are quite strict compared to international fans. It is known in the kpop community especially at that time and even not that if you are caught dating or with another girl that news spread is regarded as a scandal. Fans go as far as to show jealousy and anger over the fact that their idol had the audacity to want to have a relationship with another person. It is even in contract with their agencies that they are not allowed to date. I understand the concept that availability sells in the sense that some fans are just hardcore fans and that their idols that they support are “theirs” due to them being the ones to push them up to stardom with sales and listeners and concerts etc. However, it makes me wonder although erotomania is considered rare. How many are out there actually showcasing this condition and how much of it is just washed over and is just seen as being extreme fans. Maybe this is just a “culturally deviant idea” because the way fandoms are in Korea and hype around idols and idol groups are different than what we see in e.g. Europe and America. Hollywood and just the western music industry is comprised of regular singers and duo groups and not so much boy bands with the exception of one direction. However, that is not really on a similar level as the idol groups in Korea which dominates the music industry at the same level if not even more as independent artists. It was just an interesting connection that I made when I was thinking and reading up on erotomania.