Dalrymple reports on a recent article in the Lancet that tries to address this question:

Various motives have been suggested, by no means mutually exclusive. An excessively anxious mother may exaggerate or fabricate symptoms in order that the doctor pays more attention to the child. She may wish to have her beliefs about the child’s health confirmed, in some cases beliefs that are frankly delusional. The mother may wish for attention, hence needing to dramatize her child’s condition. She may wish to maintain a pathological closeness to the child and keep it in a state of complete dependence. Finally, the social security system may provide money for mothers with sick children.

Read the rest here

Death would seem to be an inevitable topic for a doctor and writer like Dalrymple, and he’s certainly written about it before, but I’m not sure he has ever addressed it with quite the poignancy of this new piece at Taki’s Magazine. We all get caught up in the daily minutiae of life and fail to appreciate the blessings we enjoy. Events like the one depicted here, the death of a young mother, remind us to be grateful, but realistically, how long can such gratitude last?

Yesterday a young woman who was unknown to me except at third hand died. She was the friend of a friend of my wife. Considering that I was personally unacquainted with her, and that there are about 1500 deaths a day in my country alone, her death affected me to a surprising degree…

This piece is highly recommended.