Oh, interesting diagnosis. But perhaps a folie a deux in this case? Colin himself bought into it, fervently. Before Mary got to work on him, he didn't improve when his father was absent (as many of these children do), but kept up the hysterics.

Mind you, Meadow was appallingly overzealous in the Clark case. Yet there are certainly parents who play this sort of sick game, and they have been caught on camera in their children's rooms, putting nasties in their drips. I rather suspect there are quacks who support them--Münchausen by proxy by proxy? Some of the more grandiose "detoxification treatments" for autism have that air about them: brave maverick doctors, heroic parents, desperately unlucky kids.

Nine