Hysterical Personality and Conversion: Theoretical Aspects

The hysterical personality in men.

Diagnosis and treatment of hysterical conversion reactions.

Twenty children with hysterical conversion reactions were reviewed. The ways in which they became ill, the attitudes of their families to their illnesses and their underlying personal problems were noted. Treatment comprised avoiding unnecessary investigations and removing symptoms by using graded exercises given by physiotherapists. Exploration of the underlying psychological problems took pla...

Anxiety in patients with hysterical conversion symptoms.

In psychiatry, most diagnoses are descriptions of behaviour or of phenomena reported by the patient, whereas in somatic medicine a diagnosis usually includes the pathological process underlying a syndrome or a symptom. Consequently, when a group of conditions were delineated which appeared to be of somatic origin, yet for which no organic cause was apparent, it was not surprising that terms imp...

Motor inhibition in hysterical conversion paralysis

Brain mechanisms underlying hysterical conversion symptoms are still poorly known. Recent hypotheses suggested that activation of motor pathways might be suppressed by inhibitory signals based on particular emotional situations. To assess motor and inhibitory brain circuits during conversion paralysis, we designed a go-nogo task while a patient underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (f...

Hysterical Conversion The Reverse of Anosognosia?

H ysteria has been the subject of controversy for many years, with theorists arguing about whether it is best explained by a hidden organic cause or by malingering and deception. However, it has been shown that hysterical paralysis cannot be explained in any of these terms. With the recent development of cognitive psychiatry, one may understand psychiatric and organic delusions within the same ...