la belle indifference

See also: la belle indifférence

English

Alternative forms

• la belle indifférence

Etymology

From French la + belle + indifférence.

Noun

la belle indifference (uncountable)

1. (psychiatry) A condition in which the person is unconcerned with symptoms caused by a conversion disorder. A naive, inappropriate lack of emotion or concern for the perceptions by others of one's disability, usually seen in persons with conversion disorder.
   • 1919, Oskar Pfister, The psychoanalytic method, trans. Charles Rockwell Payne, publ. Moffat, Yard, and Company, New York, pg. 496:

     Even now, one pays attention to the complex-indicators which we have studied, especially the physical ones (blushings, twitchings, strikingly soft or loud, quick or slow speech, smiling upon the recounting of severe suffering ("La belle indifference"), symptomatic movements, etc).

   • 1958, Joseph Wolpe, Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 88:

     It is interesting to note that insofar as this supports our hypothesis it accords with the time-worn conception of the hysterical patient with little or no anxiety — la belle indifference.

   • 2009, Giampiero Arciero, Guido Bondolfi, Selfhood, Identity and Personality Styles, John Wiley and Sons, →ISBN, page 171:

     La belle indifference is a way of pretending nothing is happening: it represents a way of showing one's paralysis to others by manipulating their judgment through an attitude of indifference.

Synonyms

• belle indifference