Is Hostility Dancing Along with Conversion and Dissociation?

Balta GT, Angelopoulos NV

Background.Hysterical symptoms frequently accompany a variety of neurotic and even psychotic psychiatric syndromes and illnesses.

Methods.The presence and course of these symptoms was investigated in the present study in 73 psychiatric patients. The relationship of conversion symptoms and dissociative symptoms, both two broad dimensions of hysterical symptomatology, with self-reported hostility was examined in particular.

Results.It was found that changes in dissociative symptoms showed highly significant correlations with the changes of externally directed hostility but no significant association with those of internally directed hostility. There was no significant association between changes in hostility and changes in conversion symptoms.

Conclusions.In patients recovering from mental illnesses (acute or relapses), as the dissociative symptoms became less marked so the patients expressed less extrapunitive forms of hostility. Changes in dissociative symptoms correlate significantly with changes in total hostility, as well. Conversion symptoms, on the other hand, do not correlate significantly with changes in these scales. It is also of interest that no significant correlations have been shown between the score changes of the intropunitive subscales with either conversion or dissociative symptoms.

https://doi.org/10.31871/IJNTR.3.11.3