What does the word ‘‘psychogenic’’ really mean in ‘‘psychogenic movement disorder’’ (PMD)? This is the term used most commonly in clinical practice by members of the Movement Disorder Society (MDS) and in scientific publications. In a survey of 519 MDS members, 83% said it was their preferred term with colleagues even if only 59% preferred to use it with patients. 1 Yet the same survey showed that only 18% of respondents used the presence of psychological factors to make the diagnosis and that psychiatrists often sent patients back querying the diagnosis. Just because an abnormal movement might be distractible, variable, or responsive to cognitive behavioral therapy or placebo, does that mean that the only possible mechanism for its production is psychological difficulty and distress? This seems an inappropriately narrow formulation, and yet use of the word psychogenic continues. So maybe it is more to do with the characteristics of the patient that makes the problem psychogenic? The clinical stereotype of the patient with a psychogenic movement disorder patient is a woman in her 30s or 40s with a history of many other physical symptoms, depression, and anxiety. A classic psychodynamic formulation might seek a history of childhood abuse, a tendency to dissociation and a recent life event to explain the reactivation of that tendency. Indeed, without a relevant psychological stressor, such a patient would not even qualify for a diagnosis of conversion disorder (300.11) in the psychiatric manual of diagnosis, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV).