la belle indifference
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: la belle indifférence
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From French la + belle + indifférence
Noun[edit]
la belle indifference (uncountable)
- (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 0804705097, pg. 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 and Guido Bondolfi, Selfhood, Identity and Personality Styles, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 0470517190, pg. 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.
- 1919, Oskar Pfister, The psychoanalytic method, trans. Charles Rockwell Payne, publ. Moffat, Yard, and Company, New York, pg. 496:
