OBSESSIONAL HALLUCINATION

obsessional hallucination: translation

The French termhallucination obsédante,whichtranslates as obsessional hallucination, was introduced in or shortly before 1895 by the French psychiatrist Louis Jules Ernest Séglas (1856-1939) to denote a * hallucination proper accompanied by all the symptoms characteristic of an obsession, including anxiety, distress, and discomfort. The term is used by Séglas in opposition to the termobsession hallucinatoire(i.e. *hallucinatory obsession), which refers to an obsessional fear of experiencing hallucinations. As Séglas maintains, hallucinations in obsessional patients "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 con-fusedwiththe notionof * compulsive hallucination, which has a related, but slightly different meaning. All three types of hallucination have been described in individuals with a clinical diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder and/or *schizophrenia, but they may also occur in association with other conditions, as well as in individuals without a psychiatric diagnosis.

Berrios, G.E. (2000). Leçons cliniques surlesmal-adies 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.