[Cumulative trauma caused by continued sadistic child abuse in a patient with chronic artefact disease]

A 37-year old female with borderline personality disorder, who had experienced the cumulative trauma of a history of sadistic child abuse by her mother, developed the symptomatology of chronic factitious illness after an operation necessitated by an accident injury. Relationships between chronic factitious disease and obsession, addiction, perversion and suicidal behaviour are discussed against the background of a literature review.