Dictionary

la belle indifference en · NOUN

Etymology

From French la + belle + indifférence.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A paradoxical lack of emotional distress or concern despite the presence of an illness or serious physical symptoms.
   • Even now, one pays attention to the complex-indicators which we have studied, especially the physical ones (blushings, twitchings, strikingly soft or loud, quick or slow speech, smiling upon the recounting of severe suffering ("La belle indifference"), symptomatic movements, etc). 1919, Oskar Pfister, The psychoanalytic method, trans. Charles Rockwell Payne, publ. Moffat, Yard, and Company, New York, pg. 496
   • La belle indifference is a way of pretending nothing is happening: it represents a way of showing one's paralysis to others by manipulating their judgment through an attitude of indifference. 2009, Giampiero Arciero, Guido Bondolfi, Selfhood, Identity and Personality Styles, John Wiley and Sons, →ISBN, page 171:
   • The available evidence does not support the use of la belle indifférence to discriminate between conversion symptoms and symptoms of organic disease. The quality of the published studies is poor, with a lack of operational definitions and masked ratings. La belle indifférence should be abandoned as a clinical sign until both its definition and its utility have been clarified. 2006, Stone J, Smyth R, Carson A, Warlow C. La belle indifférence in conversion symptoms and hysteria: Systematic review. British Journal of Psychiatry. 188(3):204-209. doi:10.1192/bjp.188.3.204
   • It is interesting to note that insofar as this supports our hypothesis it accords with the time-worn conception of the hysterical patient with little or no anxiety — la belle indifference. 1958, Joseph Wolpe, Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 88:

Forms