A man with a functional non-epileptic seizure disorder discusses his diagnosis calmly and seems relatively untroubled by it, but when you ask directly, he says he does worry about it and simply prefers not to dwell on it, and his sleep and appetite have been affected. Before revealing the answer: is this la belle indifference?

Probably not, or at least not clearly. La belle indifference describes an attitude that appears genuinely, unreflectively unconcerned when the symptom is discussed, not a coping style the person can articulate as a deliberate choice not to dwell on things. Here, when asked directly, he reports worry and physical signs consistent with it, which suggests concern is present but managed or underplayed, rather than genuinely absent. This is an important distinction in practice, since an outwardly calm presentation is not, on its own, sufficient to call something la belle indifference — the calm has to reflect an actual absence of concern about the symptom, not a controlled or minimised expression of concern that is present underneath.