ABSTRACT
Freud’s psycho-analytic researches showed the symptoms of conversion hysteria to be representations of unconscious phantasies in bodily terms. Psycho-analysis has given unexpected explanations concerning the nature of the forces at work in the formation of hysterical symptoms. One of the commonest hysterical manifestations is the symptom of globus hystericus, that peculiar condition of spasm of the oesophageal musculature that along with another oeophageal symptom, the loss of the swallowing reflex, is often reckoned among the stigmata of this neurosis. The monotony with which genital processes, and no others, recur in the psycho-analytic interpretation of hysterical symptoms proves that the active force in conversion springs from a genital instinctual source. All dream symbolism proves on interpretation to be sexual symbolism, just as, without exception, the bodily representations of conversion hysteria demand a sexual-symbolic interpretation. The original theory of conversion considered the hysterical conversion symptom to be due to the abreaction or strangulated affects.
