Relation entre la conversion somatique et l’idée de la mort

Abstract

The author attempts to show that somatic conversion is due to the fact that a subject in major denial of death was in fact faced with its reality. The author argues that in Freud's cases of hysteria, the symptoms were preceded shortly before by the death or severe illness of somebody close to the patient, or that the patient was abused sexually, abuse which is also a reference to death. The presence of conversions in war neurosis confirms the relationship with death. Their greater frequency in adolescence corresponds to a denial of death typical of this age period. Somatic conversion is more rare in the 20th century due to the decline in religious belief in eternal life. Women were traditionally more subject to conversions than men because they were less protected by the “spirit of capitalism” and its principle of ceaseless work, which, according to Max Weber, turned religious faith to another direction.