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Is ‘sick‐nursing’ an alternative to conversion hysteria?
Author(s) -
HOLDEN ROBYN J.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of clinical nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1365-2702
pISSN - 0962-1067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2702.1992.tb00101.x
Subject(s) - hysteria , unconscious mind , decompensation , punishment (psychology) , conversion disorder , psychogenic disease , psychology , medicine , population , nursing , psychotherapist , psychiatry , psychoanalysis , environmental health
Summary• Freud made the interesting observation that many of his patients suffering from conversion hysteria (a psychogenically induced physical dysfunction affecting the special senses) had been engaged in ‘sick‐nursing’ for a prolonged period prior to decompensation. • This paper aims to explore the relationship between ‘sick‐nursing’ and conversion hysteria. • It will be argued that, for a select population group, the unconscious motivation for choosing nursing as a career and decompensation with conversion hysteria rest on the same fundamental factors. • These factors include an unconscious sense of guilt, the need for punishment through suffering, and envy all of which corrupt normal psychosexual development.