Estudo dos traços histéricos de personalidade em pacientes portadores de crises não-epiléticas psicogênicas

Abstract

GUATER, E. C. (2010). A study of hysterical personality traits in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Dissertation of the masters, Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo. A psychogenic nonepileptic seizure is defined as a physical manifestation similar to that of epileptic seizures, but lacking a neurological correlation to justify its occurrence. Its etiology is attributed to psychological factors although subjective questions concerning the origin of symptoms are barely studied. This research aims to investigate hysterical personality traits in two patients forwarded for psychoanalytic psychotherapy after receiving this medical diagnosis, as well as analyze latent affective contents associated with the symptomatic manifestations in these case studies. The material collected during the patient consultation served as a file and source of information through which elements relative to hysterical personality and unconscious mechanisms linked to the symptoms are described and studied. This work has psychoanalysis as a reference and the case studies were carried out considering its conceptual assumptions of symptoms, conflict, conversion and hysteria. The material obtained during the sessions evidenced elements, such as erotization of the analytic space, continuous demands to occupy the place of an object of beauty, as well as refusal to abandon discontentment and search for a contented state. Investment in infantile fantasies with an unconscious desire of exclusive union with parental figures was also observed.