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We have attempted to define clinically the hysterical character, to present the major developmental trends, and to describe the basic dynamic conflicts and defenses. To delineate this entity further we have juxtaposed descriptions and examples from a larger clinical group which we have designated as hysteroid.
Clinical practice and psychiatric literature have increasingly challenged and modified the earlier psychoanalytic formulation of hysteria. Increasing stress has been placed upon oral fixations and their resultant dependency strivings (3), (9), (11), with the implicit discounting of Oedipal conflict as 'the core of the neurosis'. We feel that one can err as much in the direction of emphasizing early fixation as to assume that all hysteria is Oedipal in origin. It is preferable to divide these patients into two separate diagnostic classifications for the purpose of improving