| Summary: | The behaviors which consist in initiating frivolous or extravagant legal proceedings and refusing to obey court orders have been pathologised by the French alienists from the XIXth. century on. In this article, we study the reasons why the persons concerned have been categorised as « persecuting lunatics » from 1878 onwards. We then explain why the expression « mad claimants (revendicateurs) » replaced the latter, and how the concept of « delusional revendication » was born. Finally, we compare the situation in France, in the German-speaking countries and in the Anglo-Saxon world: by doing so, we aim at shedding light on the ways in which this issue, which has become a genuine societal problem, is tackled by legal professionnals as well as mental health specialists.
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