conversion hysteria
- noun
- /kənˈvɜrʒən hɪˈstɪəriə/
- Archaic
:
histeria de conversión
- My guess is, he lost his voice because of what's known as conversion hysteria.
Examples
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The first study is only of borderline relevance and involves the use of intravenous barbiturates as an aid in the differential diagnosis between conversion hysteria and malingering.
Blog text (32) -
Doctors first suspected a neurological condition, but it turned out to be conversion hysteria manifesting as a sudden loss of movement in his legs.
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After experiencing severe trauma, she developed conversion hysteria, causing her to lose the ability to speak even though there was no medical reason for it.
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His physical symptoms were puzzling to the doctors, as they were ultimately attributed to conversion hysteria rather than any underlying illness.
Synonyms
5
8.0
An old medical label for strong emotional outbursts and unexplained body symptoms
2
7.8
A condition where emotional stress causes loss of movement or feeling without a medical cause
1
9.3
Bodily problems like paralysis or blindness that come from emotional stress and have no physical cause
1
9.9
A condition where a person has sudden strong emotions and temporary loss of movement or feeling
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'conversion' (the idea of transforming emotions into something else) with 'hysteria' (extreme emotional disturbance), so knowledge of the constituents gives a partial clue that this is a psychological condition where emotions are transformed into symptoms. However, the precise clinical sense—conversion disorder producing neurological-like symptoms without medical cause—is specialized and not fully predictable from everyday meanings, so a B1 learner would likely need prior exposure.
Etymology
The term conversion hysteria comes from the idea that strong feelings are turned into body problems, where conversion means 'to change into' and hysteria was an old word for extreme emotional reaction. People imagined inner distress becoming real symptoms like numbness or paralysis, so the phrase means emotional trouble showing up as physical symptoms with no clear medical cause.