Experimental Analysis of Hysterical Blindness

Introduction BRADY AND LIND2described the application of an operant conditioning technique to the assessment of behavior of a patient whose condition was diagnosed as hysterical blindness. They utilized the operant technique to demonstrate that the behavior of a patient, who claimed to be blind, was controlled by visual stimuli. Use of the technique enabled them to describe accurately both the magnitude of the visual control over the patient's behavior and changes in the extent to which the patient responded to standard visual cues from day to day and week to week. We have recently reexamined the patient who served as the original experimental subject, reviewed and brought up-to-date his case history, surveyed the literature which makes reference to the Brady and Lind report, and made the patient the subject of a new experimental study. The purpose of the present paper is: