The teenage boy seemed placid as I approached his hospital bed to give him a psychiatric evaluation.

His mother was seated nearby, immersed in her knitting. I walked over and introduced myself to the boy.

He looked right through me and started screaming: "I can't see! I can't see!"

I had never witnessed such a dramatic example of hysterical blindness! "How long has this been going on?" I asked his mother.

Without looking up she replied, "Ever since you stepped in front of his television."