Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 exam•Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
A psychological condition in which a person loses the ability to function normally in some bodily way, not due to any identifiable physical cause but as a response to psychological conflict or stress.
Related terms
Somatoform Disorders: A group of psychological disorders in which a patient experiences physical symptoms that are inconsistent with or cannot be fully explained by any underlying general medical or neurological condition.
Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder (FND): A condition where patients experience physical neurological symptoms without any structural disease process explaining them.
Glove Anesthesia: A type of conversion disorder where individuals lose their sense of touch or pain in the hand and/or wrist without any physiological cause.