conversion disorder, a mental illness in which repressed emotional conflicts are changed into sensory, motor, or visceral symptoms with no underlying organic cause, such as blindness, anesthesia, hypesthesia, hyperesthesia, paresthesia, involuntary muscular movements (for example, tics or tremors), paralysis, aphonia, mutism, hallucinations, catalepsy, choking sensations, and respiratory difficulties. The person who has a conversion disorder may be indifferent to the symptoms yet firmly believes the condition exists. Causal factors include a conscious or unconscious desire to escape from or avoid some unpleasant situation or responsibility or to obtain sympathy or some other secondary gain. Treatment usually consists of psychotherapy. Also called conversion hysteria, conversion reaction, somatoform disorder.
