[Contribution to the study of the relation between hysterical neurosis and schizophrenic psychosis]

The clinical manifestations of hysterical neurosis appear to have changed over the years. Conversion crises have become less frequent while the incidence of depressive syndromes and pseudo psychotic episodes has increased. Numerous authors have directed their attention over the past twenty years to these changes. Are the seriousness of the symptoms and the archaic nature of the mechanisms sufficient to indicate a psychosis? If so, which psychosis; the one indicated by the symptom or the one indicated by the structure? The presentation of a clinical case posing difficult problems of diagnosis has allowed us to outline our thinking on the relationship of hysteria to psychosis. The psychiatric approach and the psychoanalytic approach each shed their own light on the problem. While some agreement exists between them, there remain difficulties in the terminology used for designating those periods of the hysterical neurosis which have a psychotic aspect.