Also known as psychalgia, phrenalgia, mind pain, soul pain, psychic pain, and psychogenic pain. The term algopsychalia comes from the Greek words algos (pain) and psuchè (life breath, spirit, soul, mind). It translates loosely as 'mental pain'. It refers to a bodily sensation of pain that is recognized by the individual as being mental rather than physical in origin. Algopsychalia tends to be classified as a *psychogenic hallucination or as a variant of * sensory conversion. Conceptually, it is related to * hallucinated pain. However, it should not be confused with pain syndromes such as *allodynia, *dysaesthesia, *paraesthesia, and * hyperpathia.
References
VandenBos, G.R., ed. (2007). APA dictionary of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Dictionary of Hallucinations. J.D. Blom. 2010.