Issues
Understanding De-Clerambault’s Syndrome
De-Clerambault’s Sydrome is a form of mental or psychological abnormality which can be caused by some severe shock such as being rejected by a friend or partner whom one had loved and trusted passionately.
It is similar to schizophrenia and can be caused by the trauma of falling from an exalted position to a humiliating status. It is usually associated with personal tragedies which reduce the self-esteem of an individual.
Although this ailment is more common among women, it is not an exclusive feminine malady, except that men have greater means of giving vent to personal agonies.
De-Clerambault’s Syndrome in women takes the form of obsessive love or “foolish” attachment to men who do not care about or take any interest in them. It is a situation whereby a woman gets fixated on a particular man, not because the man woos or takes interest in her.
It may be that the man symbolizes some ideal in a woman’s psyche but which has become difficult for her to actualize in real life. It can also be that the man that she gets fixated upon reminds her of something which she once cherished but lost in a chocking manner. There can also be a reverse form of this malady whereby a woman develops a pathological and inexplicable hatred for a man.
Medical doctors who become too close to their patients can become victims of lonely women who see in their “loving and caring” doctors the ideal husbands or friends which they failed to have in real life. It is common to find people who had passed through some trauma and severe emotional shocks, turn to the person who provided them emotional rescue and succour, with great passion. Such initial gratitude for a kind gesture in a time of distress can become a permanent psychological feature. The person who provided such succour may not be aware that someone is longing to have him as a partner.
Perhaps those who had suffered severe deprivations can become obsessed and cling on emotionally to those who offered them succour at critical moments. This is quite natural with human beings but, for those recovering from emotional shocks, there is a longing for “someone to lean on”. There is usually some enthusiasm and hysteria associated with this emotional malady, whereby the patient behaves in irrational and often childish manner.
Since their unattainable longings are achieved only in a state of fancy or illusion, utterances and behaviours of victims of this malady tend to give them some satisfaction of accomplishment. Men who are afflicted by this malady can tell pathetic stories about their great exploits which they claim no one values.
Those whose professions involve interacting with people in a state of agony usually have the ordeal of having to listen to long, winding stories about their dream. Religious leaders can arouse the emotional attachment of victims of this psychological malady. The phenomenon may get to the point of idolization of a religious leader by a female adherent. Women with troubled hearts arising from various burdens usually find some solace in religion and religious leaders whom they get fixated upon.
There is usually some vacuum longing to be filled, such that a number of charismatic religious leaders unwittingly get into some embarrassing entanglements with some female members of their church. Unplanned multiple marriages have been known to arise from such initial fancies and platonic attachments to “spiritual fathers” which can split homes and congregations.
Housewives have been known to run away from their matrimonial houses, to join their idols, not because they were encouraged to do so, but often because of some irrational impulses or fixation. Sometimes those afflicted with this malady usually make fools of themselves and see anyone who discourages them in their irrational attachment as an enemy. Their big dream is always to have a blissful relationship with their fancy partners, no matter the wider implications.
It is a pity that this ailment is rarely recognised as a mild psychriatric problem, which it is. Men who become the target or point of fixation can experience some embarrassment as some irrational women keep trailing their paths and looking for opportunities to hook up for permanent relationships. Even when such women are driven away in a humiliating manner, they still continue with the illusion that one day they would get the attention of their idol.
The situation can be more embarrassing when the men involved in this plight are married and living happily with their wives. The situation can create some scandal and discord in the house, and it is in rare cases that wives would believe that their husbands are not deliberately encouraging such women.
There are cases where some desperate women go to the extent of alleging that they are having or expecting babies with men who had never had intimate affairs with them.
Parents have been known to disown daughters because of their irrational and obsessive attachment to some loafers, when responsible men had been rejected. In some cases, the persistence, pestering and enthusiasm of some desperate women have resulted in unions that turned out to be blessed and blissful. There have also been cases where some women insist that they were advised by “a power beyond” them to seek for companionship with a particular man. Parents who were hostile initially have been known to embrace their rejected daughters and their partners.
De-Clerambault’s Syndrome and external influences
In some cases victims of De-Clerambault’s Syndrome are under the influence of some external forces which they are unable to control personally. There are situations where discarnate human souls of evil nature can take possession and make use of the brain of some people, periodically. This results in such persons having some fixed ideas or irrational attachment to certain persons, conditions or objects. There are persons of both sexes, young and old, who have passionate and fond attachment to certain pet creatures which other people would consider abhorrent or dangerous.
De-Clerambault’s Syndrome can manifest in a mild or severe manner, but it is most prevalent among women who had gone through some traumatic shocks arising from frustrations and failed relationships. The situation can get worse if the victim does not have effective counselling or close family members or friends who can provide emotional support and stability during critical moments.
It is possible that the situation can degenerate into hallucinatory tendencies as a result of inner conflicts and self-rejection. With such occasional relapses, the patient can become susceptible to the invasion of alien radiations or energy seeking for expression. The chance of such invasion by external thought-energy is greater if the victim of shock or frustration resorts to taking alcoholic beverages or hard drugs.
Even among those who turn to religion in such conditions of depression, there is a possibility of further regression and relapse into irrational behaviours. This is more so with religious sects which place emphasis on speaking in tongues, vision and miracles. It is difficult to draw a line between genuine religious ecstasy and hallucinatory orgy. For women with severe personal emotional challenges fascination with sects which promise quick solutions can often lead to contacts with the psychic world which is like a vast deep ocean.
The higher depress of inner perception and receptivity among women can become a liability capable of exposing them to an invasion by external influences. Human through-forms and emotions coalesce into invisible units of energy according to their nature and contents. These thought-forms invade and intrude into minds that are open to them through shock, fear, depression and regression brought about by drugs, alcohol or even prayers.
Broken personal relationships and disappointments of various kinds which degenerate into frustration, depression and a feeling of rejection and worthlessness, form the foundation for De-Clerambault’s Syndrome. While men in such situations can vent their emotional trauma through various aggressive activities which can include sports and wife beating, women are more limited because of a strong feeling of shame. Some men and women who are not strong enough inwardly, can turn into crimes or a care-free life which can include lechery.
Another form of manifestation of De-Clerambault’s Syndrome is nihilism, ranging from hatred and aggression towards everybody and social institutions, to self-destructive tendencies. There is a total loss of sense of values or a feeling of moral compunction. Those who carry out suicide-bombing are often patients of this malady, whose feelings of rejection, worthlessness and hatred for humanity drive them into mindless activities.
However, there is something else of a positive nature about patients of De-Clerambault’s Syndrome. It has to do with a regression whereby memories of some past or childhood bliss and innocence come up to the surface, brining tears and an opportunity for a drastic change or turn-around. During such moment, if there is an effective control and counselling, a totally new and glorious person can emerge.
Controversial as it may be, recall of past, distant and cathartic experiences have taken place which had been investigated and confirmed. Such phenomena, known as Anamnesis, have facilitated a better understanding of issues which perplex humanity. How do you explain a situation where a man who nearly strangulated his wife, shouted in a frenzy: “You were a mother who strangulated me because you were ashamed to have me as a baby!” A true case! We have a great deal to learn!
Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University, PH.
Bright Amirize
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
