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The occurrence of mental conflict prior to the manifestations of the disease, or of its exacerbation, may be revealed by a painstaking history of the present illness. Such conflict is provoked by changes in the life situation of the patient. It is necessary to determine the temporal connections of periods of stress with the conflicts and symptoms. Following this chronological correlation, which is positive in cases of hysteria, the nature of the conflict and its possible symbolic relation to the symptoms needs to be more closely studied.

In hysteria, the meaning of the symptoms thus becomes evident, for they express regressively (and often in a body language) both the repressing forces and the repressed Oedipus strivings in the field of conflict. Next, the personality characteristics of the patient need to be evaluated. Dependence aspects may disclose attitudes derived from the persisting, albeit unconscious, strong emotional attachments to the parents or their surrogates. The repressed Oedipus complex of early childhood may express itself in the record of events of later life which the patient is able to recall. Overdependence in the spheres of occupational, social, and sexual adjustment is often clear.