Contemporary conversion reactions : a clinical study.

Abstract

1. Our operational criteria for the diagnosis of conversion reactions are discussed, and an analysis of a series of 134 consecutive patients so diagnosed is presented. 2. From our contemporary point of view, 4 clinical aspects of the conversion reaction phenomenon are discussed and illustrated. These clinical aspects are : a) classical symptom patterns of loss of function and hystero-epilepsy, b) simulation of known organic disease entities with varying degrees of expertness, c) symptom patterns in which bodily pain is a predominant feature, and d) symptom aggregates in which conversion symptoms are intermingled with those of an organic and/or psychophysiological nature. 3. In addition to patients evidencing the well-known relationship between conversion mechanisms and neurotic anxiety, in our conversion series there was a group of 40 patients with clinically evident features of depression, a group of 19 patients with clinical features of incipient schizophrenia, and a group of adolescents with char...