Hysterical Psychosis: A Historical Review and Empirical Evaluation

The concept of hysterical psychosis (HP) suffered a curious fate in the history of psychiatry. Important observations were made about the phenomenology of HP and its curability through psychotherapy, particularly with the use of hypnosis. Pierre Janet described HP as a kind of ‘waking dream’ in which the subject could not differentiate between the dream elements and normal perceptions. The concept of reactive (psychogenic) psychosis was introduced into psychiatric nosology at the beginning of the twentieth century. Like reactive psychoses, the immediate cause of HP is usually a traumatizing or stressful life event. Theoretical notions about the symbolic and psychopathological nature of trauma-induced psychosis coalesced a century ago in the concept of hysterical psychosis. Since then, the extant clinical case studies and empirical examinations have not been sufficient to validate the existence of HP as an independent epidemiological and clinical entity.