You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Noble observed in six borderline cases an admixture of hysterical and schizophrenic symptoms. Only three of the patients, all of whom were women, were treated intensively with psychoanalytic therapy. The hysterical symptoms included conversion symptoms, fugue and twilight or somnambulistic states, and marked exaggeration of physical symptoms with dramatized behavior. Noble finds the central problem in these cases to be associated with unresolved deprivations and anxieties in relationships with the mother. The immature, dependent mothers of these patients frequently manifested conversion symptoms and demanded attention by hysterical outbursts. Fearing separation and loneliness these patients had strong wishes to be physically joined to the mother and the early rejection by the mother stimulated murderous retaliatory fantasies. The conversion symptoms of the patients are related to hostile identifications with the mother. 'The hysterical defenses were most effectively utilized in protecting the patients against intense oral anxieties.' Noble considers the hysterical manifestations as conflict solutions which helped ward off frank psychosis.