Page 475 - Understanding Psychology

SOMATOFORM DISORDERS
Anxiety can create a wide variety of physical symptoms for which no physical cause is apparent. This phenomenon is known as a somatoform disorder, or hysteria. The term hysteria was more commonly used in Sigmund Freud’s time to refer to unexplainable fainting, paralysis, or deaf- ness. Today the term somatoform disorder is preferred. Two of the major types of somatoform disorders that psychologists identify are conversion disorders and hypochondriasis.
Conversion Disorders
A conversion disorder is the conversion of emotional difficulties into the loss of a specific physiological function. While the loss of func- tioning is real, no actual physical damage is present. Many people occa- sionally experience mild conversion disorders, such as when someone is so frightened he or she cannot move, but a conversion disorder is not simply a brief loss of functioning due to fright. It persists.
A conversion disorder results in a real and prolonged handicap; the person literally cannot feel anything in his left hand, move his legs, or exercise some other normal physical function. For example, a man might wake up one morning and find himself paralyzed from the waist down. The normal reaction to this would be panic. However, he might accept the loss of function with relative calm, called la belle indifférence. This calmness is one sign that a person is suffering from a psychological rather than a physiological problem. Most psychologists believe that people suf- fering from conversion disorders unconsciously invent physical symp- toms to gain freedom from unbearable conflict. For example, a woman who lives in terror of blurting out things that she does not want to say may lose the power of speech. This resolves the conflict about speaking. Conversion disorders are comparatively rare.
Hypochondriasis
Conversion disorders must be distinguished from hypochondriasis, in which a person who is in good health becomes preoccupied with imagi- nary ailments. The hypo- chondriac spends a lot of time looking for signs of serious illness and often misinterprets minor aches, pains, bruises, or bumps as early signs of a fatal illness. Despite negative results in medical tests and physical
somatoform disorder:
physical symptoms for which there is no apparent physical cause
conversion disorder:
changing emotional difficulties into a loss of a specific volun- tary body function
Figure 16.8 Avoiding Happiness
Some people may accuse those suffering from hypochondriasis of fak- ing their illness (and preventing their own happiness). These people, though, do not fake their symptoms; they unrealistically interpret normal aches and pains as symptoms of more serious illnesses. How does hypochondriasis differ from a conversion disorder?
Chapter 16 / Psychological Disorders 461
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