HALLUCINATORY OBSESSION

hallucinatory obsession: translation

The French termobsession hallucinatoire,or hallucinatory obsession, was introduced in or shortly before 1895 by the French psychiatrist Louis Jules Ernest Séglas (1856-1939) to denote a hallucination which develops from an obsession. The term is used by Séglas in opposition to the termhallucination obsédante(i.e. * obsessional hallucination), which he reserves for a * hallucination proper which is accompanied by all the symptoms characteristic of an obsession, including anxiety, distress, and discomfort. As Séglas maintains, in obsessional individuals hallucinations "can be primary (primitive) or secondary: the former or 'obsessional hallucination' (hallucination obsédante) is an independent hallucination - verbal, auditory, visual, or motor -that is experienced by the patient in an obsessional way, e.g. as in onomatomania; the latter or hallucinatory obsession (obsession hallucinatoire) consists of a hallucination that has developed out of an obsession." The notions of hallucinatory obsession and obsessional hallucination should not be confused with the notion of * compulsive hallucination, which has a related, but slightly different meaning.

Berrios, G.E. (2000). Leçons cliniques sur les maladies mentales et nerveuses by J. Séglas.History of Psychiatry, 11, 109-112.

Séglas, J. (1895).Leçons cliniques sur les maladies mentales et nerveuses. Paris: Asselin et Houzeau.