What Is Madame Bovary Syndrome?
Madame Bovary syndrome is a behavioral disorder that arose after the appearance of the romantic books in the nineteenth century.
Since then, the idealization of love has driven thousands of people (mostly women) to incessant frustration and disillusionment. The search for the ‘perfect love’ always ends in a crushing confrontation with the reality of a relationship.
Madame Bovary syndrome is a psychopathology first described in 1892 by the philosopher Jules de Gaultier. He based his treatise on the book Madame Bovary. Gaultier talks about the main character Emma. According to him, she is the perfect stereotype of a person who suffers from what he calls “chronic emotional dissatisfaction”.
Who was Madame Bovary?
Emma Bovary is a literary character. Gustave Flaubert invented her in his 1857 book Madame Bovary. This book tells the story of her marriage to Charles Bovary.
He is a country doctor and likes to see her. But she doesn’t feel the same for him. In part, this is why she is so fond of the romantic books of the time. She has been devouring those novels since she was a teenager.
In her books she becomes acquainted with the ongoing search for passionate, obsessive relationships. This causes her a terrible discontent that lasts.
After going through depression, Charles decides to move to a small town. There they will meet different kinds of people.
Emma is seduced by two of them. The first is a young student and the second is a Casanova named Rodolphe. Her relationship with both men is possessive, jealous and very dependent. When confronted with the fact that both lovers will leave her, she eventually kills herself by ingesting arsenic.
Madame Bovary is comparable to other literary characters such as Anna Karenina. They reject their family and their role as wives in pursuit of love.
On the one hand, this may sound very liberating. But on the other hand, it’s a huge critique of idealizing love. Emma is so obsessed with satisfying her desires that she doesn’t care about putting her family in debt. She neglects her daughter and hurts the people around her.
What are the characteristics of Madame Bovary syndrome?
1. An Addiction to Romance
People with Madame Bovary syndrome cannot be alone. They live with the idea that the ideal lover will come, change their lives and take them out of their rut and their problems.
When they get out of a relationship, they quickly start another. Their sole purpose is to find someone just like the people they see in romantic books, plays, or movies.
Whenever they find someone new, they become obsessed with that person. They idealize him to such an extent that it is impossible to make them change their mind. This happens even when the person concerned is not right or good for them.
2. Impossible Relationships
Unable to sustain a real relationship, they usually focus on impossible loves. Sometimes they are already in a relationship. Yet they continue to pursue that illusion of the perfect love with another person.
This makes them unhappy because they don’t know how to be alone. They will rarely end up in a romantic relationship if they don’t have some “trump card” up their sleeve.
They are also attracted to complicated relationships or to tormented people. That’s because they see these people as romantic and passionate.
3. Ongoing Dissatisfaction
When they start a relationship, they also discover that their partner is human. So it will also have flaws.
The ideal image disappears. And then that disappearance leads to yet another frustration. They no longer see the other person as the right partner and begin to lose interest.
4. Copy from the beloved person
Because of their obsession with their partner, they begin to imitate their preferences, hobbies, and even way of thinking. This copying behavior arises from the extreme admiration they feel for the other person or can even arise from fear.
Madame Bovary syndrome can also create an intense fear that the other person will leave them. This can make them react very badly to a breakup.
Who Gets Madame Bovary Syndrome?
Several centuries ago, this syndrome was more common in women. But nowadays the ratios between the number of men and the number of women have flattened out more. That is because at that time only the men went to work. The women stayed at home.
They spent their free time doing things like reading. This led them away from reality and into places where the everyday problems didn’t exist.
People with this syndrome have often had separation problems or a lack of affection in childhood. So they feel an inordinate need to get their partner’s attention. This is their way of trying to avoid experiencing those childhood feelings again.
The main symptom of Madame Bovary syndrome is depression. But people with this condition can be treated with the help of a specialist. The specialist will evaluate the case and prepare a treatment plan.
However, sometimes it is also linked to other more serious diseases. These can be obsessive or borderline personality disorders that make intervention even more necessary because they can pose a danger.
Recommended reading
Gaultier, J, (1892), Le Bovarysme, la psychology dans l’œuvre de Flaubert , París, Francia.
