Boxes full to bursting from floor to ceiling, trash bags filled with clothes, piles of magazines lodged in a bathtub, an accumulation of dirty dishes, sometimes even mummified animals... The most spectacular aspect of the syndrome of Diogenes is well known.
But it is not systematic:
“It is rarer, but I have also known patients who emptied themselves around them, to the point of living with a mattress, a chair and a table,”
explains Laurence Hugonot -Diener, geriatrician, trained psychiatrist and co-author of the book
Diogenes Syndrome.
Understanding and caring
(De Boeck Superior).
“
We talk about it less, because it poses no risk to either the person or society.”
The accumulation of useless objects, when present, is only one facet of this syndrome anyway.
The person can also have a pathological relationship with their body (lack of personal hygiene) or with others (misanthropy or seduction).
There is no consensus…
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