By: Blonde Two

This blog post is especially for Blonde One who is particularly gifted at smiling her way through most of life’s frustrations and difficulties.  You have to know her very well to recognise when her grin is fixed and hiding other emotions.  She has told you before about one of the games that she plays with Little-Miss-Blonde; it is called Pollyanna, is named after the character in a book of the same name and involves finding something positive to say about all things horrid.  I was delighted, yesterday evening, to find out that there is a real-life medical condition called “Pollyanna Syndrome”.

Pollyanna Syndrome is defined as being when someone is blindly or foolishly optimistic, almost delusional.  Although Blonde One is very good at her game, she is also very good at worrying which suggests to me that she does not have Pollyanna Syndrome. This conclusion left me wondering which other medical conditions have been named after works of literature.  Below are a few truths and a few Blondisms – see if you can work out which is which:

Narnia Syndrome – with which the sufferer has a compulsive desire to hide in wardrobes and eat snow.

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome – with which the sufferer sees things in all of the wrong sizes (yes, this does include body parts!)

Julius Syndrome – with which the sufferer thinks that everyone is trying to stab him in the back and refuses to come out during the month of March.

Dorian Grey Syndrome – with which the sufferer struggles with signs of ageing and wears make-up at inappropriate times.

Baskerville Syndrome – with which the sufferer has a compulsive urge to walk across boggy ground in dark and misty weather.