Conversion Disorder

The person is not faking; they cannot control how they feel

-The person is generally feeling this reported physical function. They are not in control of it either --Ex: they cannot say "enough of this, I am going to get up and walk"

No physical basis

-When they are sent to the doctors to figure out what is physically wrong with them, they come to discover that there is nothing physically wrong with them, or that what they are feeling is physically impossible. --Ex: Patients believing that they have a glove on their hands because from their hand only, it feels numb. This is physically impossible

Lost or altered physical function

Ex: Numbness in parts of their body, trouble hearing

Why, according to psychoanalytic theory, did "Bear" develop a conversion disorder?

Psychoanalysis -Primary gain: --Solves a problem in a patients life without having to recognize it ---Ex: a patient believed he was paralyzed from the waist down because he could not walk. However, there was nothing physically wrong with him. After speaking with him, it turned out that he gave his friend drugs to take with him and his friend ended up jumping out of a window, breaking his neck, and became paralyzed. This patient is solving his problem without actually facing it by believing he is paralyzed too -Secondary gain: --Patient may derive advantages from problems ---Ex: getting out of work, getting attention This is from a behavioral view because it's these advantages that are reinforcing the altered physical functions

Person seems oddly indifferent to problem

The person that is experiencing the problem feels indifferent about it