Legendary singer, TV presenter, radio host, comedian, film and stage actor, movie producer, and winner of the 2004 Israel Prize for Hebrew songs Yehoram Gaon, 84, on Sunday, posted a psychiatric analysis of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, suggesting he suffers from Munchausen Syndrome.
According to the UK National Health Service, “Munchausen syndrome is a psychological condition where someone pretends to be ill or deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themselves. Their main intention is to assume the ‘sick role’ so that people care for them and they are the center of attention.”
Gaon’s analysis determines that Barak actually suffers from “Munchausen syndrome by proxy,” whereby the sufferer projects the condition on someone else.
“There is a former prime minister who believes that the country is sick and he wants to cure it, to save it, to save it from itself,” Gaon posted on his Facebook page. “And there is a condition called Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is a well-known mental syndrome in the field of psychiatry, whose main manifestation is that a person intentionally causes another person’s injury or illness, with the goal that his rescue attempts testify to the kindness and devotion of the attacking person.
“Sufferers from Munchausen syndrome by proxy are usually a parent, or a spouse, sometimes, or, in our case, it is a former prime minister.
“In most cases, the sufferer of the syndrome inflicts physical illness on the victim by injecting a dangerous substance into their blood and then rushes him to a hospital to save him.
“If you haven’t realized it yet, we are the victim, and this has-been is trying to cause all our systems to collapse and break, to arrive in the end to save us.”
Yehoram Gaon has been part of Israel’s cultural scene since the 1950s when he served in the Lahakat Hanachal military entertainment band alongside cultural icons such as Arik Einstein and Uri Zohar. He has been hosting a Friday afternoon radio show since 1997. He ran for Mayor of Jerusalem, and in 2021 announced his plans to run for President of Israel, which he later dropped.
