Quotes from Joyce McDougall

it was reassuring to her to be ill, for then she had the confirmation that her body was indeed her own, that it had limits, that it was alive, and that she herself was a separate individual who was in no danger of losing her sense of subjective identity. While these were not the causes of her illnesses, they were, so to speak, secondary benefits.

In classical psychoanalytic theory hysterical symptoms refer to dysfunction when a body part or a sense organ takes on an unconscious symbolic meaning. For example, a patient's eyes or legs might be equated unconsciously with his or her sexual organs; in the case of massive inhibition of adult sexuality, an eye or a leg may appear not to function. There is no physiological damage; the affected organ is only hysterically paralyzed.