Somatoform Disorders
Involve physical symptoms that have no organic (biological) cause (ulcers, asthma,
high blood pressure); brought on by psychological distress.
Conversion Disorder
• A psychological conflict or need (emotional difficulties) is
converted into dramatic physical symptoms that affect voluntary or
sensory functioning. Person temporarily loses some bodily
function. No physical damage to cause problems
• Symptoms often seem neurological, such as paralysis, blindness, or
loss of feeling
• Most conversion disorders begin between late childhood and
young adulthood
• They usually appear suddenly and are thought to be rare
• How do conversion disorders differ from regular disabilities?
– They tend to appear when the person is under extreme stress
– The symptoms may be physiologically impossible or improbable (Ex:
“glove anesthesia,” where lack of feeling stops abruptly at the wrist,
even though nerves extend through the arm)
– The person may show remarkably little concern about what most
people would think was a rather serious problem
• Most psychologists believe that people suffering
from conversion disorders unconsciously invent
physical symptoms to gain freedom from
unbearable conflic
• Examples:
• A woman who lived in terror of blurting out
things she did not want to say lost the
power of speech.
• A college student experienced total
blindness every Monday morning, but her
vision would begin to return by Friday
evening and was fully restored in time for
weekend social activities
Figure 14.10: Glove anesthesia.
In conversion disorders, the physical
complaints are sometimes inconsistent
with the known facts of physiology. For
instance, given the patterns of nerve
distribution in the arm shown in (a), it is
impossible that a loss of feeling in the
hand.
Watch 
Teens Uncontrollable Mystery Illness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcKL8ihDL2Y&fe
ature=youtu.be
Band of Brothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2NbEV8cFzs
Talladega Nights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV40bc6yA7c
Somatoform Disorders
Hypochondriasis
• Unrealistically interpret bodily symptoms as signs of serious illness.
Excessive preoccupation with health concerns. Assume physician must
be incompetent and they often become “experts” on their most feared
diseases
• Often their symptoms are merely normal bodily changes, such as
occasional coughing, sores, or sweating
– Although some patients recognize that their concerns are excessive,
many do not
Watch 
Mental Health Guru on Hypochandriasis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UxK1rcU2gk&feature=
youtu.be
Hannah and Her Sisters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao7KEvXCSBM and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkIQ39538Ig&feature=rel
ated
Somatoform Disorders
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
• Preoccupation with an imagined or exaggerated
defect in one’s appearance
Watch 
Mirror Mirror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAuc2xAM78&feature=related
Etiology of Somatoform Disorders
• Psychodynamic Perspective
– two mechanisms are at work in the hysterical disorders:
• Primary gain: hysterical symptoms keep internal conflicts out of
conscious awareness
• Secondary gain: hysterical symptoms further enable people to avoid
unpleasant activities or to receive kindness or sympathy from others
• Behavioral Perspective:
– physical symptoms of hysterical disorders bring rewards to sufferers
• may remove individual from an unpleasant situation
• may bring attention to the individual – sick role
• Cognitive Perspective: oversensitivity to bodily cues
– Hysterical disorders are a form of communication, providing a means for
people to express difficult emotions
– Some people focus excessive attention on their internal physiological
processes and amplify normal bodily sensations into symptoms of distress,
which lead them to pursue medical treatment. Tend to have a faulty
standard of good health, equating health with a complete absence of
symptoms.
Very difficult disorder to treat because sufferers jump from one medical
5
doctor to another!