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Hysterical affects make a qualitatively different impression from other affects. Siegman believes this to be due to their defensive utilization by the ego. Among the defensive operations he notes (1) the offer of 'appropriate' emotions to the super-ego; (2) their use to establish an apparently convincing link with an impulse while the real affect remains unconscious; (3) the smuggling in of hidden libidinal gratifications; (4) the secondary eroticization of the defensive affects; (5) the active seeking out of stimuli by means of which the neurotic gratifications involved in the defence can be repeated. Parallels may be drawn with the obsessional neurosis and moral masochism.
The loud clamour of shallow emotions reminds one of children in the phallic phase hypocritically protesting 'appropriate' emotions to curry favour with their parents. This suggests a fixation at the period when the super-ego has been modified in its original severity but not yet firmly internalized. Fixation at this stage may help to account for the suggestibility of hysterics.