HYSTERIA – SYMPTOMS
In hysteria, no pain is felt, at least at a conscious level. Hysteria may occur in children or mentally healthy people suddenly exposed to intolerable strain, such as a war or some natural disaster.
It is more common in those who have the typical hysterical personality. These are immature and inadequate and seem to have no ideas or emotions of their own but to take on the attitudes of the group in which they find themselves.
They like to be the centre of attention to make up for their inferiority feelings. This posturing may not be conscious. Children often seem to live out their fantasies, and those adults with hysterical personalities seem to behave in the same way. They are self-centred and bend and twist the truth to keep themselves in the limelight.
Hysterical symptoms are always assumed in order to gain, but this gain may not be obvious on casual examination.
The symptoms may be physical or emotional or both. The more knowledge the person has of real illness, the more closely may the symptoms mimic it. Paralysis, weakness and loss of feeling are common. Difficulty in swallowing, loss of the voice, blindness, deafness and loss of memory all occur.
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