23. Most sufferers of the glass delusion were rich, powerful males, and many may have been faking it to be fashionable
According to the historian Gill Speak, the world’s foremost expert on the ‘glass delusion’, cases of this psychiatric disorder began to spread throughout Europe during the 16th century. Could it be that King Charles VI had made the belief fashionable? Did people genuinely believe they were made of glass, or did they just want to show off their similarities to royalty? Nobody will ever know for sure. But what is apparent is that it was mainly men – and mainly royals or members of the aristocracy – who suffered from this most bizarre of afflictions.