folie à deux

American  

[fo-lee uh doo, faw-lee a dœ] / fɒˈli ə ˈdu, fɔ li a ˈdœ /

noun

Psychiatry.

folies à deux plural

1. the sharing of delusional ideas by two people who are closely associated.

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folie à deux British  

/ ˈfɒlɪ æ ˈdɜː /

noun

1. psychiatry mental illness occurring simultaneously in two intimately related persons who share some of the elements of the illness, such as delusions

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• folies à deux
  plural

Etymology

Origin of folie à deux

Borrowed into English from French around 1890–95

Example Sentences

In psychiatry there is a condition known as folie à deux, which describes how two people share a psychosis.

From Salon • Jun. 21, 2019

In “Disco Pigs,” this perspective is a folie à deux, the shared and sustained creation of a lad and lass who grew up together from infancy in a soul-sapping council estate in County Cork.

From New York Times • Jan. 10, 2018

She writes about folie à deux and mass hysteria, doppelgängers, sociopathy, revenge.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 21, 2016

Cue the descent into Cronenbergian folie à deux, right?

From Slate • Sep. 11, 2014

The results are extremely funny in the account of a folie à deux in the dangerous world of teaching, and perceptive in the observation of the creative process.

From The Guardian • Mar. 31, 2013