Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:41:10.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hysterical Behaviour in Patriarchal Communities

Four Cases, one with Ganser-like Symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Malcolm P. I. Weller
Malcolm P. I. Weller*
Affiliation:
Friern Hospital, Friern Barnet Road, London N11 3BP
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The aspirations, mores, and family structure in Cypriot immigrants, which are illustrated in four cases of hysterical behaviour, have many similarities to nineteenth century Viennese society. Such behaviour may mask more sinister diagnoses; one of the cases remains diagnostically uncertain and another passed through a transient hysterical psychosis with Ganser-like symptoms. The cultural, dynamic, and nosological issues are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 5 , May 1988 , pp. 687 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balla, J. I. & Moraitis, S. L. (1970) Knights in armour: a follow-up study of injuries after legal settlement. Medical Journal of Australia, 2, 355–361.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1966) Demential Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias (trans, by Zinkin, J.). New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Brinkley, J. R., Beitman, B. D. & Friedel, R. O. (1979) Low dose neuroleptic regimes in the treatment of borderline patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 319–326.Google Scholar
Carter, A. B. (1949) The prognosis of certain hysterical symptoms. British Medical Journal, i, 1076–1079.Google Scholar
Chodoff, P. (1974) The diagnosis of hysteria: an overview. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 1073–1078.Google ScholarPubMed
Coryell, W. & Tsuang, M. T. (1982) DSM–III schizophreniform disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 66–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dahl, A. A. (1985) A critical examination of empirical studies of the diagnosis of borderline disorders in adults. Psychiatric Developments, 3, 1–29.Google ScholarPubMed
Devereux, G. (1956) Normal and abnormal: the key problem of psychiatric anthropology. In: Some uses of Anthropology: Theoretical and Applied (eds Casagrande, J. B. & Gladwin, T.). Anthropological Society of Washington.Google Scholar
Enoch, M. D., Trethowan, W. H. & Barker, J. C. (1967) Some Uncommon Psychiatric Syndromes. Bristol: John Wright and Sons.Google Scholar
Everitt, B. S., Gourlay, A. J. & Kendell, R. E. (1971) An attempt at validation of traditional psychiatric symptoms by cluster analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 399–412.Google Scholar
Feighner, J. P., Robins, E., Guze, S. B., Woodruff, R. A., Winokur, G. & Munoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freud, S. (1910) The origin and development of psycho-analysis. Reprinted (1937) in: A General Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud (ed. Rickman, J.). London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psychoanalysis.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1914) On narcissism: an introduction. Reprinted (1937) in: A General Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud (ed. Rickman, J.). London: The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psychoanalysis.Google Scholar
Freud, S. & Breuer, J. (1895) Translated (1983) as Studies on Hysteria, by Strachey, J. & A. (ed. Richey, A.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Fromm, E. (1942) The Fear of Freedom. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Ganser, S. J. M. (1898) Translated (1964) as The Ganser Syndrome, by C. E. Schorer. British Journal of Criminology, 5, 120–126.Google Scholar
Granville-Grossman, K. (1975) Hysterical syndromes. Medicine, 482–484.Google Scholar
Hay, G. G. (1983) Feigned psychosis: a review of the simulation of mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 8–10.Google Scholar
Hoch, P. H. & Pollatin, P. (1949) Pseudoneurotic forms of schizophrenia. Psychiatric Quarterly, 23, 248.Google Scholar
Hollender, M. H. & Hirsch, S. J. (1964) Hysterical psychosis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 1066–1074.Google Scholar
Jaspers, K. (1923) Allgemeine Pathologie. Translated (1963) as General Psychopathology , by Hoenig, J. & Hamilton, M. W. Manchester and Chicago: Manchester University Press and University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Johnson-Sabine, E. C., Mann, A. H., Jacoby, R. J., Wood, K. H., Peron-Magnan, P., Olie, J. P. & Deniker, P. (1983) Bouffée delirante: an examination of its current status. Psychological Medicine, 13, 771–778.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, E. (1957) Edited and abridged (1961) by L. Trilling & S. Marcus. Reunion (1919–1920). The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Harmonds worth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Jung, C. C. (1907) Published (1974) in The Freud/Jung Letters (ed. Mannheim, R. & Hull, R. F. C.). London and Henley-on-Thames: Hogarth Press and Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Kiev, A. (1972) Transcultural Psychiatry. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Kiloh, L. G. (1961) Pseudo-dementia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 37, 336–351.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1919) Demential Praecox. Translated by Barclay, M. (ed. Robertson, G. M.). Edinburgh: E. and S. Livingstone.Google Scholar
Langfeldt, G. (1968) Schizophrenia: diagnosis and prognosis. Published (1985) in: Research in the Schizophrenic Disorders: The Stanley R. Dean Award Lectures, vol. 1 (eds Cancro, R. & Dean, S. R.). New York: Spectrum and Lancaster, MTP.Google Scholar
Lawson, W. K. (1984) Mentally abnormal offenders in prison. In: Mentally Abnormal Offenders (eds Craft, M. & Craft, A.). London, Philadelphia, Toronto: Bailliere Tindall.Google Scholar
Leone, N. F. (1982) Response of borderline patients to laxapine and chlorpromazine. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 43, 148–150.Google Scholar
Ljungberg, L. (1957) Hysteria: a clinical, prognostic and genetic study. Acta Psychiatrica Neurologica Scandinavica, 32, Suppl. 112, 1–162.Google Scholar
Lloyd, G. G. (1986) Hysteria: a case for conservation? British Medical Journal, 293, 1255–1256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mechanic, D. (1975) Sociocultural and social-psychological factors affecting personal responses to psychological disorder. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 16, 393–404.Google Scholar
Menninger, K. A. (1958) The Theory of Psychoanalytic Technique. London: Imago Tau.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, P. D. & McEvedy, C. P. (1966) An epidemic of overbreathing among schoolgirls. British Medical Journal, 11, 1295–1302.Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (1951) The Social System. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Price, J. S. (1969) Personality differences within families: comparison of adult brothers and sisters. Journal of Biosocial Sciences, 1, 177–205.Google Scholar
Psychological Medicine, (1985) The concept of illness behaviour: culture, situation and personal predisposition. Psychological Medicine, 16, 1–7.Google Scholar
Rabkin, R. (1964) Conversion hysteria as a social maladaptation. Psychiatry, 27, 349–369.Google Scholar
Rack, P. H. (1983) Psychiatric disorders in immigrants. Medicine International, 34, B146–149.Google Scholar
Reed, J. L. (1971) Hysteria. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 5, 237–247.Google Scholar
Reusch, J. (1957) Disturbed Communication. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Riesman, D., Glazer, N. & Denney, R. (1950) The Lonely Crowd. London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Roth, M. (1959) The phobic anxiety–depersonalisation syndrome. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 52, 587–595.Google Scholar
Roth, M. (1979) Problems of diagnosis and treatment in the borderlands of schizophrenia. In: Proceedings of an International Symposium on Neuroleptics and Schizophrenia, Cambridge, 1978 (ed. Simister, J. M.). Luton: Lundbeck.Google Scholar
Sandifer, M. G., Hordern, A., Timbury, G. C. & Green, L. M. (1969) Similarities and differences in patient evaluation by US and UK psychiatrists. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 206–212.Google Scholar
Sanseigne, A. & Desrosiers, M. (1960) Evaluation of psycho-pharmaceuticals in an undeveloped country. In: Psychiatry in the Underdeveloped Countries: Report of a Roundtable Meeting (ed. Kline, N. S.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Sargant, W. (1957) Battle for the Mind: a Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Scheff, T. (1966) Being Mentally Ill. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Serban, G. & Siegel, S. (1984) Response of borderline and schizotypal patients to small doses of thiothixene and haloperidol. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 1455–1458.Google Scholar
Slater, E. (1965) Diagnosis of ‘hysteria’. British Medical Journal, i, 1395–1399.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Rroth, M. (1969) Clinical Psychiatry. London: Bailliere Tindall.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1975) Research Diagnostic Criteria, Instrument No. 58. New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Stefanis, C., Markidids, M. & Christodoulou, G. (1976) Observations on the evolution of hysterical symptomatology. British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 269–275.Google Scholar
Szasz, T. (1961) The Myth of Mental Illness. New York: Hoeber.Google Scholar
Tarsh, M. J. & Royston, C. (1985) A follow-up study of accident neurosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 18–25.Google Scholar
Tyrer, P., Casey, P. & Gall, J. (1983) Relationship between neurosis and personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 404–408.Google Scholar
Walton, H. J. & Presly, A. S. (1973) Use of a category system in the diagnosis of abnormal personality. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 259–268.Google Scholar
Weller, M. P. I. (1987) The spectrum of schizophrenia. Post Graduate Medical Journal, 63, 1021–1024.Google Scholar
Whitlock, F. A. (1967) The Ganser syndrome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 113, 19–30.Google Scholar
Whitlock, F. A. (1982) The Ganser syndrome and hysterical pseudo-dementia. In Hysteria (ed. Roy, A.). Chichester: J. Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) Description and Classification of Psychiatric Symptomatology: an Instruction Manual for the PSE and Catego Program. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wootton, B. (1959) Social Science and Social Pathology. London: G. Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Ziegler, F. J., Imboden, J. B. & Meyer, E. (1960) Contemporary conversion symptomatology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 116, 901–910.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.