Book excerpt: This book offers a comprehensive, detailed examination of MBPS. Written by leading authorities, it covers all known clinical, medical, psychological, social and legal aspects of the disorder, including detection, dynamics, treatment, and clinical management. Based on their own experiences evaluating and treating these patients, the authors present an innovative theory of the disorder as a form of imposturing. Detailed psychological test data on a group of MBPS mothers are presented for the first time to enhance our understanding of the cognitive and psychological makeup of parents who fabricate illness in their children. The text also contains a thoughtful discussion of the larger social context of women in our society and in our medical institutions--a discussion crucial to our understanding of why MBPS is predominantly a disorder of women.