a psychological disorder in which severe physical symptoms like blindness or paralysis appear with no apparent physical cause
conversion disorder in American English
noun
Psychiatry
a mental disorder in which physical symptoms, as paralysis or blindness, occur without apparentphysical cause and instead appear to result from psychological conflict or need
Also called: conversion hysteria
Examples of 'conversion disorder' in a sentence
conversion disorder
Hysteria is now referred to as a conversion disorder.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Recently, there has been renewed interest in the symptoms of conversion disorder (hysteria).
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Mass hysteria is a conversion disorder — where psychological conflict due to stress expresses itself physically when there is no actual physical cause.
The Sun (2012)
They are suffering from conversion disorder.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
When conversion disorder hits several people in the same group it is referred to as mass hysteria.
The Sun (2012)
In important respects, of course, the reaction of patients and families to attempts to impose a definition of conversion disorder is quite understandable.
The Times Literary Supplement (2016)
She was diagnosed with 'conversion disorder', which causes people to feel neurological symptoms such as paralysis without an identifiable physical cause.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
For these reasons, conversion disorders are usually a poor mimic of neurological disease.