la belle indifférence

See also: la belle indifference

English

Etymology

From French la + belle + indifférence.

Noun

la belle indifférence (uncountable)

1. Alternative spelling of la belle indifference
   • 1942, Arthur Guirdham, Disease and the Social System, READ BOOKS, published 2007, →ISBN, page 62:

     Most of us have heard of la belle indifférence of the French neurologists. This term attempts to convey the beautiful calm of those hysterics who have achieved their ambition to avoid responsibility by inducing in themselves a state of resistless torpor and the reputation for chronic invalidism bravely borne.

   • 1980, Frederick Busi, The Transformations of Godot‎^[1], University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, pages 56–57:

     As such this term is close in meaning to what Jung has referred to as "euphoric apathy" or la belle indifférence, usually in connection with hysterical manifestations but here mainly in reference to the gods.

   • 1990, Catherine G. Fine, “The Cognitive Sequelae of Incest,”, in Incest-related Syndromes of Adult Psychopathology, Ed. Richard P. Kluft, American Psychiatric Pub, →ISBN, page 178:

     It is understood that some of the schemes have equilibrated in a way such that two, three, or more mutually exclusive opinions coexist within one patient (or even personality); the situation becomes more perplexing to the therapist when she realizes that rather than approaching this circumstance with appropriate circumspection and confusion, the incest victim may respond with a degree of la belle indifférence to the illogical coexistence of contradictory alternatives.