The suspect's claim significantly narrowed the diagnostic scope for Mr. Qi's team, causing them to focus most of their efforts on whether the man was suffering from hysteria.
However, this brought little joy to Mr. Qi, Yan Feifan, and the others.
The problem was that hysteria was an incredibly complex condition.
Hysteria, known scientifically as dissociative conversion disorder, is a mental disorder caused by psychological factors—such as life events, internal conflicts, or suggestion and auto-suggestion—acting upon a susceptible individual.
Its symptoms are diverse, and its manifestations varied.
Most importantly, the pathogenesis of hysteria is still not fully understood.
The current prevailing theories could be broadly summarized into two categories.
The first is that hysteria is a primitive stress response.
A primitive response refers to the various instinctual reactions humans exhibit in a state of crisis.
