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The term micropsia is frequently used in the ophthalmological and neurological literature to describe a symptom which may occur in such conditions as choroiditis, retinitis, tumors of the temperosphenoidal lobe and hysteria. In the standard textbooks on diseases of the eyes, micropsia is defined as that condition in which objects appear removed in space and reduced in size. We shall see later that this definition is inadequate for the same phenomenon when it appears as a neurotic symptom. The occurrence of micropsia has been attributed to paresis of the accommodative function and to circulatory changes in the retinas or the optic brain centers.
In a brief article entitled A Psychoanalytical Explanation of Micropsia,1 W. S. Inman writes about two boys who experienced this visual disturbance in connection with objects which symbolized the mother. Both patients had been nursed for excessive lengths of time and says Inman, 'whether oral fixation is responsible for every case of micropsia must be left to further investigation'. He expressed the opinion that 'transient micropsia is probably dependent upon some vagary of the intrinsic muscles of the eyes'. With this one exception no previous detailed investigation of hysterical micropsia has been reported in the literature.
In defining micropsia as a neurotic manifestation, I wish to emphasize the importance of the sensation of motion experienced during the occurrence of this symptom. As the patient stares at another person that person and subsequently all other objects in the visual field appear to be moving into the distance and simultaneously becoming smaller and smaller until everyone and everything is pin-point in size. When micropsia