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Hysterical Conversion

II: a Critique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

C. J. Mace*
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital, London SW17, and Institute of Neurology, London WC1

Abstract

The career of the diagnosis of conversion hysteria is reviewed at a time when it is threatened with expulsion from classifications of psychiatric disorder. Criticism of its face validity has not led to adequate diagnostic alternatives, and has been insensitive to its unusual form as a category as well as the contribution it has made to the stability of the classificatory system around it.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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