well a minority opinion in the field, which is not to be discounted, is these people are just faking. I have a special interest in functional neurological symptoms and have treated more of these patients than most, and do not have a good way of understanding non-epileptic attacks compared with say functional motor or sensory phenomena, or even functional movement disorders. It is hard not be extremely skeptical of patients with non-epileptic attacks and I have not been able to convince myself that these patients are unconsciously producing these symptoms. They may lack awareness of their motivations (which is not the same as being unconscious of course) but I don't have a sense of how the actual symptom production is not something they are actively putting on, in comparison to say patients with functional paralysis or sensory loss.
Also in practice, the divisions between malingering, somatization, conversion, factitious disorder and compensation neurosis are not clear cut. Often (in fact almost all of the patients referred to me with functional neurological disorder) are involved in some sort of disability/compensation claim, and those with a pain component may be seeking opioids etc.
as clinicians we have to believe the patients, and I never tell patients that I think they are making it all up, but yes I often think they might be.