Fifty four consecutive subjects diagnosed as Hysteria (300.1 according to ICD-9), were taken up for study, to examine the usefulness and validity of Lazare's criteria and explore its clinical utility in diagnosing conversion disorders. Lazare's validation score was computed for each subject, and the specificity, sensitivity, positive predictive validity and misclassification rates were computed for different cut off scores. A cut off score of 5 on Lazare's validation criteria gave good sensitivity (75%) but only modest specificity (41%). The individual criteria showed variation in presence between 18% and 68%, and some of these such as "disturbed sexuality" and "secondary gain" were felt to require redefining. The study of patterns of previous history of organic illness, physical findings on clinical examination, lateralization of symptoms, handedness and followup status indicated important association between hysteria and organicity.