Idiopathic hysteria

The idiopathic hysteria ( psychically acquired hysteria ) was an instrumental by Sigmund Freud in his contributions to the " Studies on Hysteria " from 1895 prepared in accordance ätiogenetischen criteria subclass of hysterical disease. According to his concept, it arises under the influence of several trauma that appear sequentially in the biography , with the splitting off of ideas from the primary consciousness .

A mental illness with symptoms that have no obvious cause. The patient gives no or only rudimentary information about the ideas with which his symptoms arise. (see also idiopathy ) The connection with the trauma is therefore difficult to see, but can be proven with certainty in the course of psychotherapy .

The untreated course is phasically progressive , the secondary gain in illness can be considerable, an obstacle to therapy in the case of settled illnesses , but takes a back seat if the personality is broken.

Symptoms according to Freud

The number of symptoms is much more extensive than that of traumatic hysteria . One finds:

• Neuralgia
• tic-like affections
• recurring facial hallucinations
• Vomit
• anorexia
• Pseudoepilepsy
• psychosomatic manifestations ( psychosomatoses )

These symptoms would have to prove to be just as closely related to the triggering event as the symptoms of traumatic hysteria .

Disease insight

Insight into the disease is less and less common here than in traumatic hysteria .

etiology

According to Freud , this form of hysteria arises from a collection of small traumatic events that are integrated into a system of hypnoid groups of ideas that are topically separated from primary consciousness . The individual traumatic experiences can be far apart in time; the decisive factor is their suitability to be integrated into the system at all.

He describes the course form as cumulative , whereby acquiring phenomena would occur regularly. With this concept, the idea emerged for the first time in history that a mental illness must have a meaningful, functional internal structure that remains unknown to the patient, but nevertheless interacts effectively with and in the environment. Of particular importance historically was the knowledge that it can happen that patients at times show behaviors that aim to recapture trauma , that is, the patient seems to " seek " the trauma . This was very surprising at the time, but regardless of the historical fate of Freudian psychoanalysis, it is now considered a commonplace of psychotherapy.

Freud therefore also called idiopathic hysteria psychologically acquired hysteria .

see also: partial trauma

swell

• Sigmund Freud / Josef Breuer: Studies on Hysteria. Franz Deuticke, Leipzig + Vienna 1895. Reprint: 6th edition. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1991. ISBN 3596104467