Folie à plusieurs, in English, should seem very familiar

[Stinky The Clown]

Folie à deux (/fɒˈli ə ˈduː/; French pronunciation: ​[fɔli a d̪ø]; French for "a madness shared by two&quot , or shared psychosis, is a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. The same syndrome shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie en famille or even folie à plusieurs ("madness of many&quot . Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as shared psychotic disorder (DSM-IV) (297.3) and induced delusional disorder (F.24) in the ICD-10, although the research literature largely uses the original name. The disorder was first conceptualized in 19th century French psychiatry by Charles Lasègue and Jean-Pierre Falret and so also known as Lasègue-Falret Syndrome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folie_%C3%A0_deux

[enlightenment]

1. Your post reminded me

of one of my favorite films, King of Hearts (1966), starring Alan Bates.

Well worth watching if you haven't seen it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Hearts_%281966_film%29