A Family View of Hysterical Psychosis
JOSEPH RICHMAN PH.D.1, and
HARVEY WHITE M.D.1
1 Department of psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Ave., Bronx, N.Y. 10461
The phenomenon of hysterical psychosis is reexamined in view of the newer family concepts of psychiatric disturbances. In four patients studied, the illness was associated with anxiety related to death, aggression, and actual object loss; every patient was suicidal; and the psychotic symptoms were family syntonic. In addition, the psychosis was of special relevance to dominant family problems, themes, myths, and fantasies. The authors conclude that family factors are crucial to the understanding of the development of this disorder.
