conversion disorder

formerly hysteria

In psychology, a neurosis marked by extreme emotional excitability and disturbances of psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions. The earlier concept of hysteria was used frequently in the first half of the 20th century to explain a wide variety of symptoms and behaviours observed particularly in women. (The term derives from the Greek word for , reflecting the Greeks' belief that the condition resulted from disturbances of the uterus.) Disorders with symptoms similar to those of conversion disorder include factitious disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and personality disorder (histrionic type).

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