Lawyers for Jerry Sandusky, the assistant Penn State football coach on trial for sexual assault on minors, have suggested Sandusky suffers from histrionic personality disorder, and that the disorder explains his apparent "love letters" to a number of his alleged victims.

In one of these letters, Sandusky writes, "I write because of the churning in my stomach when you don't care.  I still hope there will be meaning to the time we have known each other."

Histrionic personality disorder is, in rough terms, being overly emotional and dramatic, in a way that encourages others to pay attention to you and interact with you, but may have little deep or real meaning.  

It's not only thinking of the world as your stage, but overacting your part, to boot-in order to coerce people into feeling like they are connected to you far more than they are.  

People with histrionic personality