Following her high-profile release from prison on December 28 after serving 8 years for the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard in 2015, Blanchard has amassed tens of millions of likes on her Instagram and TikTok posts.From the moment she got out of prison, paparazzi have been hounding her and fans follow her every move: what she’s wearing, how she’s spending time with family, and what she’s revealing about her time behind bars.And when she’s not on socials, she’s walking red carpets and doing the media rounds, sharing awkward moments with Joy Behar on “The View” and defending her new boo on “Entertainment Tonight.” With these interviews, reactions invariably follow —people can’t get enough of her.Her mentions are mostly full of support — with people praising her as a survivor of Munchausen by proxy — but are also full of memes poking fun at her, negativity, and conspiracy theories.This is normal for a public figure, but Blanchard is anything but a typical star. Munchausen by proxy survivors often deal with post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress reactions. Her status as a survivor raises the question: As someone who is very likely still recovering from what her mother put her through, is the internet the best place for Blanchard?Marc Feldman, a psychiatrist, author, and expert on Munchausen by proxy — which he prefers to call medical child abuse — spoke to Business Insider about what Gypsy could be thinking about as she transitions from inmate to public figure and what may be helpful for her as a recovering abuse victim.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.You’ve been following Blanchard’s story for a while. Did you expect the social media response to her prison release?I did not expect the massive outpouring of attention that she received and is receiving on social media. I may be a little unsophisticated about social media in general, but I thought while there would be some attention, it would never be as overwhelming as it is. She seems gratified by most of it and is doing nothing to curtail it. But I cannot in any way fault her for meeting what is, at this moment, an insatiable demand for information about Gypsy Rose.And it seems there’s a financial stake for Blanchard, too.She got nothing for the Hulu series “The Act.” She never even got to speak with anyone. I didn’t know that was legal at first but then I was assured it was. I feel bad that she got no compensation for what turned out to be a pretty good representation of her life.Besides being a money-making opportunity for Blanchard, I also see a greater awareness, especially among Gen Z that what Blanchard went through was abuse. Do you see that as a positive?It is mostly positive, but we have to bear in mind that Gypsy herself has acknowledged that arranging for her mother to be killed was a mistake. There were ways short of that to call attention to her true physical and cognitive status — though they would have been very difficult. I think her options were limited, but we do have to look at the extent of the manipulation she engaged in when it came to her mother’s murder.I see Nicholas Godejohn as a victim of hers to some extent. I do think his sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole is wildly excessive. At least he should have had the opportunity for parole, considering that he’s autistic, and that wasn’t brought up at his criminal hearing because there was some dispute about just how autistic he was. But Gypsy Rose had the presence to buy the knife, give it to him, and tell him what she wanted him to do. He is, at the very least, extremely suggestible, so we can’t paint her as all victim, and we can’t paint her as all perpetrator. She’s complex, and that’s why this story may last in the media for some time, and books will come out — aside from the one that Gypsy herself has authored with the help of two others.It’s interesting that you bring up manipulation because I was going to ask about that in the context of her social media presence. I had seen a previous interview of yours where you talked about how many media appearances she’s done. At the time, you speculated that at least some part of her giving interviews has to be a form of manipulation. Do you still believe that?I think it is part of her manipulation, but it’s also very inviting if you have the opportunity to make money or get attention. She was raised by a mother who was a world expert at manipulating attention and control and was isolated from others who would have perhaps illustrated healthier behaviors. So, I’m not surprised that things have unfolded the way they have. I do worry. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad — psychologically — as long as it doesn’t last too long.What is she trying to manipulate people into thinking or doing?I think that propelled by other people — though stemming from her own self-interest — Gypsy is looking to become financially secure and to have her reputation redeemed. She has always been the subject of intense interest, and she and her hangers-on know it — my comments in this regard exclude her family, who seem sincerely interested in her well-being. She has little education and no evident job skills, and I don’t blame her for seeking money for her story, but I hope that she isn’t surprised or upset when interest fades, as it eventually will. I was a little taken aback by one of her TikTok posts, in which she carefully gives the titles of her e-book and Lifetime docuseries. If she doesn’t have a personal publicist, it sure sounds like she does. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing for now, but I hope she realizes they may not necessarily have her best interests at heart in the short- or long-term.Blanchard is likely dealing with some sort of trauma from her childhood. Is the internet, where Gypsy’s every move is now being watched, a good place for her to be?I think there is probably going to be a lot of pressure on her to accept every media opportunity and stay very involved with social media because not only does she need to make money, but there are people around her who want to make money off her. I saw that post that says how strange it was that her husband looked like her mother. They’re both overweight — otherwise, I didn’t see it. And there was a whole spate of comments endorsing that. People have the anonymity of the internet and can be variable in how they feel about situations. So if somebody posts something unbecoming or hostile, there’s always somebody who will jump on board, whether intentionally or not, and start a whole battery of posts about that.It may make sense for someone else neutral to screen these posts. From what I can tell, her family seems loving, supportive, and protective. So, I would hope she’d focus on people with no agenda other than to help her heal and move forward.What is best for Gypsy, psychologically, as someone recovering from this type of abuse?Nobody really seems to be asking the question of what is best psychologically for Gypsy, and I wish more people would.I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Maya Kowalski case in Florida, but my first reaction when Gypsy’s name started showing up online, to be honest with you, was it’s a wonderful thing that stories about Gypsy have now totally preempted the falsehoods about the Kowalski case and medical child abuse. Because for a while, all anyone wanted to talk about was how false accusations of medical child abuse crop up everywhere — and that’s not true. Now, with Gypsy Rose’s visibility, who can honestly say this is a false diagnosis? So I, for selfish reasons, perhaps as well as professional reasons, like that she’s as public as she has been.But it needs to come to an end, and it’s going to be hard for her to find therapy with somebody who’s really knowledgeable. There tends still to be very little training about Munchausen by proxy. I had never heard of it, even though I went through a psychiatric residency, until after I was on the faculty of Duke. But I hope she can find support.There are support groups for survivors through a website called munchausensupport.com. I would love that resource to be available to Gypsy as long as her story, which is so extreme, doesn’t dominate and the other survivors don’t get heard. That would be a big risk.Can Gypsy Rose’s story drown out other other abuse victims?Though she’s called attention to Munchausen by proxy like no one else, most cases — in fact, every other case of which I’m aware — don’t involve the murder of the mom. Her case lasted her whole childhood and adolescence. That’s unusual. Most cases simply involve a perpetrator — almost always the child’s mother — who makes false reports about the child’s symptoms or exaggerates them to a doctor. And maybe that’ll be figured out quickly, maybe not.We need not lose focus on the fact that almost all, if not all, other Munchausen by proxy cases are mild and subtle. But doctors need to be prepared to recognize them and not think, “Well, this is nothing like Gypsy Rose’s case, so it can’t be Munchausen by proxy, and I better not make a report to the police or Child Protective Services.” That would be a disservice.I testified in a case where the guardian ad litem got her information about Munchausen by proxy from watching “The Act.” I testified that would be grossly misleading to her unless she found other more nuanced sources of information. I was worried that she would be dismissive of the case at hand because it wasn’t as extreme.I’ll also point out that if a murder is going to take place, or homicide is going to take place, it’s going to be of the child. Among published reports of Munchausen by proxy cases, 6-9% of the children die either as a result of the mother, say, injecting the child with bacteria or suffocating the child or, unwittingly, at the hands of doctors who perform potentially dangerous surgeries.
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