ABSTRACT
The history of mankind is replete with examples of practices which emphasize the status of the eye as the identity of the person, the focus of his being. No survey of the folklore of the eye would be complete without at least brief mention of the "evil eye" and the couvade. The relation between ocular symptoms and the couvade, by which it meant the imitation by a man of various aspects of a woman's sexual life, was brought to light a few year ago by Inman. Scopophilia or voyeurism, the terms applied to the libidinous investment of the sensations of looking, might well be called the shibboleths of ocular parlance. Symptoms of the eye in which psychogenic factors play a role fall into two broad classes: conversion symptoms (usually hysterical) and organ neuroses. Beyond the realm of such ocular disturbances it is even barely possible that there is a more pervasive link between hysteria and the diencephalon.
