ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Claudia’s case which illustrates the serious problems that may confront the caring staff with such patients, who soon earn the diagnosis of malignant hysteria, hysterical psychosis, or schizophrenia. The case of Claudia illustrates the difficulty presented in assigning a diagnosis to such a psychotic illness. The ingenious, though controversial, use of mechanical restraint proved to be successful in helping Claudia along the path to self-restraint because it was implemented as an adjunct to the psychotherapy, which was focused on understanding why it was necessary. The term “hysteria” as a diagnostic category can refer to a very wide range of symptoms, including states of dissociation, conversion to bodily symptoms, phobias, amnesias, fugues, and hallucinations. Claudia had cooperated well in the therapy and had become less disturbed, and after two years she had been discharged to a more open and less supervised institution.
