Belle Indifference

Belle indifference or “la belle indifference” is literally translated as “beautiful indifference”. This is a psychiatric phenomenon characterized by naivety or lack of concern regarding one’s disability. For instance, a patient who could not walk (without neurological explanation) is not bothered by her disability and is talking cheerfully with the psychiatrist. This is often associated with conversion disorder wherein patients present neurological symptoms such as paralysis, convulsions, and blindness without sufficient physiological evidence. This term was first used by Pierre Janet, a French psychiatrist and philosopher who specialized in dissociation and traumatic memory cases.