Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Dr. Richard Asher

  • The doctor and the baron

    George DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States There was a doctor, and there was a baron. The doctor could write, the baron could fly. On a clear day the baron could have flown on the back of an eagle over Italy and Spain to the Carolinas and the White House. There was also a rogue professor. And…

  • Dr. Meadow’s Munchausen syndrome by proxy: the history and the controversy

    Nereida Esparza Chicago, Illinois, United States   Münchhausen rides a cannonball August von Wille (1828–1887) Munchausen syndrome is a severe psychiatric disorder described in the DSM-IV. In 1951 Dr. Richard Asher named the illness after Baron Munchausen (full name Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen, 1720–1797).1 The German-born baron served in the Russian army until…