conversion disorder
2
7.8
- noun
- /kənˈvɜrʒən dɪsˈɔrdər/
- Specialized
:
trastorno de conversión
- call it a conversion disorder
I did then diagnose myself with conversion disorder or hysteria.
- I did then diagnose myself with conversion disorder or hysteria.
Examples
-
I did then diagnose myself with conversion disorder or hysteria.
-
Causing conversion disorder, of which your asthma and your blindness are active symptoms.
-
Many people don’t realize that symptoms like paralysis can be due to conversion disorder, which has no medical cause.
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After extensive tests, the doctors concluded that her unexplained loss of sensation was related to conversion disorder.
-
He was diagnosed with conversion disorder after experiencing sudden paralysis following a traumatic event.
Synonyms
1
9.3
Bodily problems like paralysis or blindness that come from emotional stress and have no physical cause
A condition where strong emotions cause physical symptoms without a medical cause
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'conversion' (a change or transformation) and 'disorder' (a medical/mental condition) give a learner a general sense that this is a condition involving some kind of conversion, so the phrase is partially interpretable. However the specific clinical meaning — psychological stress producing physical neurological symptoms — is a specialized, non-obvious usage that a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words is unlikely to derive, making the expression only partly transparent.
Etymology
Conversion disorder comes from medical use of the word conversion, which meant 'changing' strong feelings into body problems, and disorder, meaning a problem. One popular story is that doctors saw stress 'turned into' symptoms like numbness or paralysis, so the phrase now means emotional stress showing up as physical problems without a medical cause.