abreaction An emotional release or discharge after recalling a
painful experience that has been repressed because it was not consciously
tolerable. Often the release is surprising to the individual experiencing it
because of it's intensity and the circumstances surrounding its onset. A
therapeutic effect sometimes occurs through partial or repeated discharge of the
painful affect.

acetylcholine A neurotransmitter in the brain, which helps to
regulate memory, and in the peripheral nervous system, where it affects the actions
of skeletal and smooth muscle.

acting out This
is the process of expressing unconscious emotional conflicts or feelings via
actions rather than words. The person is not consciously aware of the meaning or
etiology of such acts. Acting out may be harmful or, in controlled situations,
therapeutic (e.g., children's play therapy).

actualization The realization of one's full potential -
intellectual, psychological, physical, etc.

adiadochokinesia The inability to perform rapid alternating
movements of one or more of the extremities. This task is sometimes requested
by physicians of patients during physical examinations to determine if there exists
neurological problems.

adrenergic This refers to neuronal or neurologic activity caused
by neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine.

affect This
word is used to described observable behavior that represents the expression of a
subjectively experienced feeling state (emotion). Common examples of affect are
sadness, fear, joy, and anger. The normal range of expressed affect varies
considerably between different cultures and even within the same culture. Types of
affect include: euthymic, irritable, constricted; blunted; flat; inappropriate, and
labile.

affective disorders Refers to disorders of mood. Examples would
include Major Depressive Disorder, Dysthymia, Depressive Disorder, N.O.S.,
Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood, Bipolar Disorder...

age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) The
mild disturbance in memory function that occurs normally with aging; benign
senescent forgetfulness. Such lapses in memory are lately humorously referred
to as representing "a senior moment".

agitation (psychomotor agitation) Excessive motor activity that
accompanies and is associated with a feeling of inner tension. The activity is
usually nonproductive and repetitious and consists of such behavior as pacing,
fidgeting, wringing of the hands, pulling of clothes, and inability to sit
still.

agnosia Failure
to recognize or identify objects despite intact sensory function; This may be seen
in dementia of various types. An example would be the failure of someone to
recognize a paper clip placed in their hand while keeping their eyes
closed.

agonist medication A chemical entity that is not naturally occuring within
the body which acts upon a receptor and is capable of producing the maximal effect
that can be produced by stimulating that receptor. A partial agonist is capable
only of producing less than the maximal effect even when given in a concentration
sufficient to bind with all available receptors.

agonist/antagonist medication A chemical entity that is not naturally
occuring within the body which acts on a family of receptors (such as mu, delta,
and kappa opiate receptors) in such a fashion that it is an agonist or partial
agonist on one type of receptor while at the same time it is also an antagonist on
another different receptor.

agoraphobia Anxiety about being in places or situations in which
escape might be difficut or embarrassing or in which help may not be available
should a panic attack occur. The fears typically relate to venturing into the open,
of leaving the familiar setting of one's home, or of being in a crowd, standing in
line, or traveling in a car or train. Although agoraphobia usually occurs as a part
of panic disorder, agoraphobia without a history of panic disorder has been
described as also occuring without other disorders.

agraphia The loss of a pre-existing ability to express one's
self through the act of writing.

akathisia Complaints of restlessness accompanied by movements
such as fidgeting of the legs, rocking from foot to foot, pacing, or inability to
sit or stand. Symptoms can develop within a few weeks of starting or raising the
dose of traditional neuroleptic medications or of reducing the dose of medication
used to treat extrapyramidal symptoms. akathisia is a state of motor restlessness
ranging from a feeling of inner disquiet to inability to sit still or lie
quietly.

akinesia A
state of motor inhibition or reduced voluntary movement.

akinetic mutism A state of apparent alertness with following eye
movements but no speech or voluntary motor responses.

alexia Loss
of a previously intact ability to grasp the meaning of written or printed words and
sentences.

alexithymia A disturbance in affective and cognitive function
that can be present in an assortment of diagnostic entities. Is common in
psychosomatic disorders, addictive disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder.
The chief manifestations are difficulty in describing or recognizing one's own
emotions, a limited fantasy life, and general constriction in affective
life.

algophobia Fear of pain.

alienation The estrangement felt in a setting one views as
foreign, unpredictable, or unacceptable. For example, in depersonalization
phenomena, feelings of unreality or strangeness produce a sense of alienation from
one's self or environment.

alloplastic Referring to adaptation by means of altering the
external environment. This can be contrasted to autoplastic, which refers to the
alteration of one's own behavior and responses.

alogia An
impoverishment in thinking that is inferred from observing speech and language
behavior. There may be brief and concrete replies to questions and restriction in
the amount of spontaneous speech (poverty of speech). Sometimes the speech is
adequate in amount but conveys little information because it is overconcrete,
overabstract, repetitive, or stereotyped (poverty of content).

ambivalence The coexistence of contradictory emotions,
attitudes, ideas, or desires with respect to a particular person, object, or
situation. Ordinarily, the ambivalence is not fully conscious and suggests
psychopathology only when present in an extreme form.

amentia Subnormal development of the mind, with particular
reference to intellectual capacities; a type of severe mental
retardation.

amimia A
disorder of language characterized by an inability to make gestures or to
understand the significance of gestures.

amines Organic compounds containing the amino group. Amines such
as epinephrine and norepinephrine are significant because they function as
neurotransmitters.

amnesia Loss of
memory. Types of amnesia include: anterograde Loss of memory of events that occur
after the onset of the etiological condition or agent. retrograde Loss of memory of
events that occurred before the onset of the etiological condition or
agent.

amok A culture
specific syndrome from Malay involving acute indiscriminate homicidal mania
.

amygdala This is a structure of the brain which is part of the
basal ganglia located on the roof of the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle at
the inferior end of the caudate nucleus. It is a structure in the forebrain that is
an important component of the limbic system.

amyloid Any one of various complex proteins that are deposited
in tissues in different disease processes. These proteins have an affinity for
Congo red dye. In neuropsychiatry, of particular interest are the beta-amyloid (A4)
protein, which is the major component of the characteristic senile plaques of
Alzheimer's disease, and the amyloid precursor protein (APP).

anaclitic In psychoanalytic terminology, dependence of the infant on the
mother or mother substitute for a sense of well-being. This is considered normal
behavior in childhood, but pathologic in later years.

anal stage The period
of pregenital psychosexual development, usually from 1 to 3 years, in which the
child has particular interest and concern with the process of defecation and the
sensations connected with the anus. The pleasurable part of the experience is
termed anal eroticism.

anamnesis The developmental history of a patient and of his or
her illness, especially recollections.

anankastic personality Synonym for obsessive-compulsive
personality.

androgyny A
combination of male and female characteristics in one person.

anhedonia Inability to experience pleasure from activities that
usually produce pleasurable feelings. Contrast with hedonism.

anima In
Jungian psychology, a person's inner being as opposed to the character or persona
presented to the world. Further, the anima may be the more feminine "soul" or inner
self of a man, and the animus the more masculine soul of a woman.

anomie Apathy, alienation, and personal distress resulting from
the loss of goals previously valued. Emile Durkheim popularized this term when he
listed it as a principal reason for suicide.

anosognosia The apparent unawareness of or failure to recognize
one's own functional defect (e.g., hemiplegia, hemianopsia).

antagonist medication A chemical entity that is not naturally occuring
within the body which occupies a receptor, produces no physiologic effects, and
prevents endogenous and exogenous chemicals from producing an effect on that
receptor.

anxiety The apprehensive anticipation of future danger or
misfortune accompanied by a feeling of dysphoria or somatic symptoms of tension.
The focus of anticipated danger may be internal or external. Anxiety is often
distinguished from fear in that fear is a more appropriate word to use when there
exists threat or danger in the real world. Anxiety is reflective more of a
threat that is not apparent or imminent in the real world, at least not to the
experienced degree.

apathy Lack
of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern.

aphasia An
impairment in the understanding or transmission of ideas by language in any of its
forms--reading, writing, or speaking--that is due to injury or disease of the brain
centers involved in language.

anomic or amnestic aphasia Loss of the ability to name objects.

aphonia An
inability to produce speech sounds that require the use of the larynx that is not
due to a lesion in the central nervous system.

apperception Perception as modified and enhanced by one's own
emotions, memories, and biases.

apraxia Inability to carry out previously learned skilled motor
activities despite intact comprehension and motor function; this may be seen in
dementia.

assimilation A Piagetian term describing a person's ability to
comprehend and integrate new experiences.

astereognosis Inability to recognize familiar objects by touch
that cannot be explained by a defect of elementary tactile sensation.

ataxia Partial or
complete loss of coordination of voluntary muscular movement.

attention
The ability to focus in a sustained manner on a particular stimulus or activity. A
disturbance in attention may be manifested by easy distractibility or difficulty in
finishing tasks or in concentrating on work

auditory hallucination A hallucination involving the perception
of sound, most commonly of voices. Some clinicians and investigators would not
include those experiences perceived as coming from inside the head and would
instead limit the concept of true auditory hallucinations to those sounds whose
source is perceived as being external.

aura A premonitory,
subjective brief sensation (e.g., a flash of light) that warns of an impending
headache or convulsion. The nature of the sensation depends on the brain area in
which the attack begins. Seen in migraine and epilepsy.

autoeroticism Sensual self-gratification. Characteristic of, but
not limited to, an early stage of emotional development. Includes satisfactions
derived from genital play, masturbation, fantasy, and oral, anal, and visual
sources.

automatism Automatic and apparently undirected nonpurposeful
behavior that is not consciously controlled. Seen in psychomotor
epilepsy.

autoplastic Referring to adaptation by changing the
self.

autotopagnosia Inability to localize and name the parts of one's
own body. finger agnosia would be autotopagnosia restricted to the
fingers.

avolition

An inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activities. When severe
enough to be considered pathological, avolition is pervasive and prevents the
person from completing many different types of activities (e.g., work, intellectual
pursuits, self-care).

B

bestiality Zoophilia; sexual relations between a human being
and an animal. See also paraphilia.

beta-blocker An agent that inhibits the action of
beta-adrenergic receptors, which modulate cardiac functions, respiratory functions,
and the dilation of blood vessels. Beta-blockers are of value in the treatment of
hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, and migraine. In psychiatry, they have been used
in the treatment of aggression and violence, anxiety-related tremors and
lithium-induced tremors, neuroleptic-induced akathisia, social phobias, panic
states, and alcohol withdrawal.

bizarre delusion A delusion that involves a phenomenon that the person's
culture would regard as totally implausible.

blind spot Visual scotoma, a circumscribed area of blindness or
impaired vision in the visual field; by extension, an area of the personality of
which the subject is unaware, typically because recognition of this area would
cause painful emotions.

blocking A
sudden obstruction or interruption in spontaneous flow of thinking or speaking,
perceived as an absence or deprivation of thought.

blunted affect
An affect type that represents significantreduction in the intensity of emotional
expression

body image One's sense of the self and one's body.

bradykinesia Neurologic condition characterized by a
generalized slowness of motor activity.

Broca's aphasia
Loss of the ability to comprehend language coupled with production of inappropriate
language.

bruxism
Grinding of the teeth, occurs unconsciously while awake or during stage 2 sleep.
May be secondary to anxiety, tension, or dental problems.

C

Capgras' syndrome The delusion that others, or the self, have
been replaced by imposters. It typically follows the development of negative
feelings toward the other person that the subject cannot accept and attributes,
instead, to the imposter. The syndrome has been reported in paranoid schizophrenia
and, even more frequently, in organic brain disease.

catalepsy
Waxy flexibility--rigid maintenance of a body position over an extended period of
time.

cataplexy Episodes of sudden bilateral loss of muscle tone
resulting in the individual collapsing, often in association with intense emotions
such as laughter, anger, fear, or surprise.

catatonic
behavior Marked motor abnormalities including motoric immobility (i.e.,
catalepsy or stupor), certain types of excessive motor activity (apparently
purposeless agitation not influenced by external stimuli), extreme negativism
(apparent motiveless resistance to instructions or attempts to be moved) or mutism,
posturing or stereotyped movements, and echolalia or echopraxia

catharsis
The healthful (therapeutic) release of ideas through "talking out" conscious
material accompanied by an appropriate emotional reaction. Also, the release into
awareness of repressed ("forgotten") material from the unconscious. See also
repression.

cathexis Attachment, conscious or unconscious, of emotional
feeling and significance to an idea, an object, or, most commonly, a
person.

causalgia A sensation of intense pain of either organic or
psychological origin.

cerea flexibilitas
The "waxy flexibility" often present in catatonic schizophrenia in which the
patient's arm or leg remains in the position in which it is placed.

circumstantiality Pattern of speech that is indirect and
delayed in reaching its goal because of excessive or irrelevant detail or
parenthetical remarks. The speaker does not lose the point, as is characteristic of
loosening of associations, and clauses remain logically connected, but to the
listener it seems that the end will never be reached.

clanging A
type of thinking in which the sound of a word, rather than its meaning, gives the
direction to subsequent associations.

climacteric Menopausal period in women. Sometimes used to refer
to the corresponding age period in men. Also called involutional period.

cognitive
Pertaining to thoughts or thinking. Cognitive disorders are disorders of thinking,
for example, schizophrenia.

comorbidity The simultaneous appearance of two or more
illnesses, such as the co-occurrence of schizophrenia and substance abuse or of
alcohol dependence and depression. The association may reflect a causal
relationship between one disorder and another or an underlying vulnerability to
both disorders. Also, the appearance of the illnesses may be unrelated to any
common etiology or vulnerability.

compensation A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, by
which one attempts to make up for real or fancied deficiencies. Also a conscious
process in which one strives to make up for real or imagined defects of physique,
performance skills, or psychological attributes. The two types frequently merge.
See also overcompensation.

compulsion Repetitive ritualistic behavior such as hand washing
or ordering or a mental act such as praying or repeating words silently that aims
to prevent or reduce distress or prevent some dreaded event or situation. The
person feels driven to perform such actions in response to an obsession or
according to rules that must be applied rigidly, even though the behaviors are
recognized to be excessive or unreasonable.

conative
Pertains to one's basic strivings as expressed in behavior and actions

concrete thinking Thinking characterized by immediate experience, rather
than abstractions. It may occur as a primary, developmental defect, or it may
develop secondary to organic brain disease or schizophrenia.

condensation A psychological process, often present in dreams,
in which two or more concepts are fused so that a single symbol represents the
multiple components.

confabulation Fabrication of stories in response to questions
about situations or events that are not recalled.

confrontation A communication that deliberately pressures or
invites another to self-examine some aspect of behavior in which there is a
discrepancy between self-reported and observed behavior.

constricted affect Affect type that represents mild reduction in the
range and intensity of emotional expression.

constructional apraxia An acquired difficulty in drawing
two-dimensional objects or forms, or in producing or copying three-dimensional
arrangements of forms or shapes.

contingency reinforcement In operant or instrumental conditioning, ensuring
that desired behavior is followed by positive consequences and that undesired
behavior is not rewarded.

conversion A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, by
which intrapsychic conflicts that would otherwise give rise to anxiety are instead
given symbolic external expression. The repressed ideas or impulses, and the
psychological defenses against them, are converted into a variety of somatic
symptoms. These may include such symptoms as paralysis, pain, or loss of sensory
function.

coping mechanisms
Ways of adjusting to environmental stress without altering one's goals or purposes;
includes both conscious and unconscious mechanisms.

coprophagia Eating of filth or feces.

counterphobia Deliberately seeking out and exposing onself to,
rather than avoiding, the object or situation that is consciously or unconsciously
feared.

countertransference The therapist's emotional reactions to the
patient that are based on the therapist's unconscious needs and conflicts, as
distinguished from his or her conscious responses to the patient's behavior.
Countertransference may interfere with the therapist's ability to understand the
patient and may adversely affect the therapeutic technique. Currently, there is
emphasis on the positive aspects of countertransference and its use as a guide to a
more empathic understanding of the patient.

cretinism A
type of mental retardation and bodily malformation caused by severe, uncorrected
thyroid deficiency in infancy and early childhood.

cri du chat A
type of mental retardation. The name is derived from a catlike cry emitted by
children with this disorder, which is caused by partial deletion of chromosome
5.

conversion symptom A loss of, or alteration in, voluntary motor or
sensory functioning suggesting a neurological or general medical condition.
Psychological factors are judged to be associated with the development of the
symptom, and the symptom is not fully explained by a neurological or general
medical condition or the direct effects of a substance. The symptom is not
intentionally produced or feigned and is not culturally sanctioned.

culture-specific syndromes Forms of disturbed behavior specific to
certain cultural systems that do not conform to western nosologic entities. Some
commonly cited syndromes are the following: amok; koro; latah; piblokto, and
windigo.

D

Da Costa's syndrome Neurocirculatory asthenia; "soldier's heart"; a
functional disorder of the circulatory system that is usually a part of an anxiety
state or secondary to hyperventilation.

decompensation The deterioration of existing defenses, leading
to an exacerbation of pathological behavior.

defense mechanism Automatic psychological process that protects the
individual against anxiety and from awareness of internal or external stressors or
dangers. Defense mechanisms mediate the individual's reaction to emotional
conflicts and to external stressors. Some defense mechanisms (e.g., projection,
splitting, and acting out) are almost invariably maladaptive. Others, such as
suppression and denial, may be either maladaptive or adaptive, depending on their
severity, their inflexibility, and the context in which they occur.

déjà vu A paramnesia
consisting of the sensation or illusion that one is seeing what one has seen
before

delusion A
false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly
sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes
incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not
one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture
(e.g., it is not an article of religious faith). When a false belief involves a
value judgment, it is regarded as a delusion only when the judgment is so extreme
as to defy credibility. Delusional conviction occurs on a continuum and can
sometimes be inferred from an individual's behavior. It is often difficult to
distinguish between a delusion and an overvalued idea (in which case the individual
has an unreasonable belief or idea but does not hold it as firmly as is the case
with a delusion). Delusions are subdivided according to their content. Some of the
more common types are: bizarre; delusional jealousy; grandiose; delusion of
reference; persecutory; somatic; thought broadcasting; thought
insertion.

delusional jealousy The delusion that one's sexual partner is unfaithful.
erotomanic A delusion that another person, usually of higher status, is in love
with the individual.

delusion of reference A delusion whose theme is that events, objects, or
other persons in one's immediate environment have a particular and unusual
significance. These delusions are usually of a negative or pejorative nature, but
also may be grandiose in content. This differs from an idea of reference, in which
the false belief is not as firmly held nor as fully organized into a true
belief.

denial A defense mechanism
where certain information is not accessed by the conscious mind. Denial is related
to repression, a similar defense mechanism, but denial is more pronounced or
intense. Denial involves some impairment of reality. Denial would be operating
(as an example) if a cardiac patient who has been warned about the potential
fatal outcome of engaging in heavy work, decides to start building a wall of heavy
stones.

depersonalization An alteration in the perception or experience
of the self so that one feels detached from, and as if one is an outside observer
of, one's mental processes or body (e.g., feeling like one is in a
dream).

derailment ("loosening of associations") A pattern of speech in
which a person's ideas slip off one track onto another that is completely unrelated
or only obliquely related. In moving from one sentence or clause to another, the
person shifts the topic idiosyncratically from one frame of reference to another
and things may be said in juxtaposition that lack a meaningful relationship. This
disturbance occurs between clauses, in contrast to incoherence, in which the
disturbance is within clauses. An occasional change of topic without warning or
obvious connection does not constitute derailment.

derealization An alteration in the perception or experience of
the external world so that it seems strange or unreal (e.g., people may seem
unfamiliar or mechanical).

dereistic Mental activity that is not in accordance with
reality, logic, or experience.

detachment A behavior pattern characterized by general
aloofness in interpersonal contact; may include intellectualization, denial, and
superficiality.

diplopia
Double vision due to paralysis of the ocular muscles; seen in inhalant intoxication
and other conditions affecting the oculomotor nerve.

disconnection syndrome Term coined by Norman Geschwind
(1926¾1984) to describe the interruption of information transferred from one
brain region to another.

disinhibition Freedom to act according to one's inner drives or
feelings, with less regard for restraints imposed by cultural norms or one's
superego; removal of an inhibitory, constraining, or limiting influence, as in the
escape from higher cortical control in neurologic injury, or in uncontrolled firing
of impulses, as when a drug interferes with the usual limiting or inhibiting action
of GABA within the central nervous system.

disorientation Confusion about the time of day, date, or season
(time), where one is (place), or who one is (person).

dysphoric mood An unpleasant mood, such as sadness, anxiety, or
irritability.

displacement A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in
which emotions, ideas, or wishes are transferred from their original object to a
more acceptable substitute; often used to allay anxiety.

dissociation A disruption in the usually integrated functions of
consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment. The disturbance
may be sudden or gradual, transient or chronic.

distractibility The inability to maintain attention, that is,
the shifting from one area or topic to another with minimal provocation, or
attention being drawn too frequently to unimportant or irrelevant external
stimuli.

double bind Interaction in which one person demands a response
to a message containing mutually contradictory signals, while the other person is
unable either to comment on the incongruity or to escape from the
situation.

drive Basic urge,
instinct, motivation; a term used to avoid confusion with the more purely
biological concept of instinct.

dyad A two-person
relationship, such as the therapeutic relationship between doctor and patient in
individual psychotherapy.

dysarthria Imperfect articulation of speech due to disturbances
of muscular control or incoordination.

dysgeusia Perversion of the sense of taste.

dyskinesia Distortion of voluntary movements with involuntary
muscular activity.

dyslexia
Inability or difficulty in reading, including word-blindness and a tendency to
reverse letters and words in reading and writing.

dyssomnia
Primary disorders of sleep or wakefulness characterized by insomnia or hypersomnia
as the major presenting symptom. Dyssomnias are disorders of the amount, quality,
or timing of sleep.

dystonia Disordered tonicity of muscles.

E

echolalia The pathological, parrotlike, and apparently senseless
repetition (echoing) of a word or phrase just spoken by another person. echolalia
Parrot-like repetition of overheard words or fragments of speech.

echopraxia Repetition by imitation of the movements of another.
The action is not a willed or voluntary one and has a semiautomatic and
uncontrollable quality.

ego In psychoanalytic
theory, one of the three major divisions in the model of the psychic apparatus, the
others being the id and the superego. The ego represents the sum of certain mental
mechanisms, such as perception and memory, and specific defense mechanisms. It
serves to mediate between the demands of primitive instinctual drives (the id), of
internalized parental and social prohibitions (the superego), and of reality. The
compromises between these forces achieved by the ego tend to resolve intrapsychic
conflict and serve an adaptive and executive function. Psychiatric usage of the
term should not be confused with common usage, which connotes self-love or
selfishness.

ego ideal
The part of the personality that comprises the aims and goals for the self; usually
refers to the conscious or unconscious emulation of significant figures with whom
one has identified. The ego ideal emphasizes what one should be or do in contrast
to what one should not be or not do.

ego-dystonic Referring to aspects of a person's behavior,
thoughts, and attitudes that are viewed by the self as repugnant or inconsistent
with the total personality.

eidetic image

Unusually vivid and apparently exact mental image; may be a memory, fantasy, or
dream.

elaboration An unconscious process consisting of expansion and
embellishment of detail, especially with reference to a symbol or representation in
a dream.

elevated mood
An exaggerated feeling of well-being, or euphoria or elation. A person with
elevated mood may describe feeling "high," "ecstatic," "on top of the world," or
"up in the clouds."

engram A
memory trace; a neurophysiological process that accounts for persistence of
memory

epigenesis Originally from the Greek "epi" (on, upon, on top
of) and "genesis" (origin); the theory that the embryo is not preformed in the ovum
or the sperm, but that it develops gradually by the successive formation of new
parts. The concept has been extended to other areas of medicine, with different
shades of meaning. Some of the other meanings are as follows: 1. Any change in an
organism that is due to outside influences rather than to genetically determined
ones. 2. The occurrence of secondary symptoms as a result of disease. 3.
Developmental factors, and specifically the gene-environment interactions, that
contribute to development. 4. The appearance of new functions that are not
predictable on the basis of knowledge of the part-processes that have been
combined. 5. The appearance of specific features at each stage of development, such
as the different goals and risks that Erikson described for the eight stages of
human life (trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. doubt, etc.). The life cycle theory
adheres to the epigenetic principle in that each stage of development is
characterized by crises or challenges that must be satisfactorily resolved if
development is to proceed normally.

ethnology A science that concerns itself with the division of
human beings into races and their origin, distribution, relations, and
characteristics.

euthymic Mood in the "normal" range, which implies the absence
of depressed or elevated mood.

expansive mood Lack of restraint in expressing one's feelings,
frequently with an overvaluation of one's significance or importance. irritable
Easily annoyed and provoked to anger.

extinction The weakening of a reinforced operant response as a
result of ceasing reinforcement. See also operant conditioning. Also, the
elimination of a conditioned response by repeated presentations of a conditioned
stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus. See also respondent
conditioning.

extraversion A state in which attention and energies are
largely directed outward from the self as opposed to inward toward the self, as in
introversion.

F

fantasy An
imagined sequence of events or mental images (e.g., daydreams) that serves to
express unconscious conflicts, to gratify unconscious wishes, or to prepare for
anticipated future events.

flashback A
recurrence of a memory, feeling, or perceptual experience from the past.

flat affect An affect
type that indicates the absence of signs of affective expression.

flight of ideas A nearly continuous flow of accelerated speech
with abrupt changes from topic to topic that are usually based on understandable
associations, distracting stimuli, or plays on words. When severe, speech may be
disorganized and incoherent.

flooding
(implosion) A behavior therapy procedure for phobias and other problems involving
maladaptive anxiety, in which anxiety producers are presented in intense forms,
either in imagination or in real life. The presentations, which act as
desensitizers, are continued until the stimuli no longer produce disabling
anxiety.

folie à deux A shared psychotic disorder between 2
people, usually people who are mutually dependent upon each other.

formal thought disorder An inexact term referring to a
disturbance in the form of thinking rather than to abnormality of content. See
blocking; loosening of associations; poverty of speech.

formication The tactile hallucination or illusion that insects
are crawling on the body or under the skin.

fragmentation Separation into different parts, or preventing
their integration, or detaching one or more parts from the rest. A fear of
fragmentation of the personality, also known as disintegration anxiety, is often
observed in patients whenever they are exposed to repetitions of earlier
experiences that interfered with development of the self. This fear may be
expressed as feelings of falling apart, as a loss of identity, or as a fear of
impending loss of one's vitality and of psychological depletion.

free association In psychoanalytic therapy, spontaneous,
uncensored verbalization by the patient of whatever comes to mind.

frotteurism One of the paraphilias, consisting of recurrent,
intense sexual urges involving touching and rubbing against a nonconsenting person;
common sites in which such activities take place are crowded trains, buses, and
elevators. Fondling the victim may be part of the condition and is called
toucherism.

fusion The union
and integration of the instincts and drives so that they complement each other and
help the organism to deal effectively with both internal needs and external
demands.

G

Gegenhalten "Active" resistance to passive movement of the
extremities that does not appear to be under voluntary control.

globus hystericus The disturbing sensation of a lump in the
throat.

glossolalia Gibberish-like speech or "speaking in
tongues."

gender dysphoria A persistent aversion toward some or all of
those physical characteristics or social roles that connote one's own biological
sex.

gender identity A person's inner conviction of being male or
female.

gender role Attitudes, patterns of behavior, and personality
attributes defined by the culture in which the person lives as stereotypically
"masculine" or "feminine" social roles.

grandiosity An inflated appraisal of one's worth, power,
knowledge, importance, or identity. When extreme, grandiosity may be of delusional
proportions.

grandiose delusion A delusion of inflated worth, power, knowledge,
identity, or special relationship to a deity or famous person.

gustatory hallucination A
hallucination involving the perception of taste (usually unpleasant).

H

hallucination A sensory perception that has the compelling
sense of reality of a true perception but that occurs without external stimulation
of the relevant sensory organ. Hallucinations should be distinguished from
illusions, in which an actual external stimulus is misperceived or misinterpreted.
The person may or may not have insight into the fact that he or she is having a
hallucination. One person with auditory hallucinations may recognize that he or she
is having a false sensory experience, whereas another may be convinced that the
source of the sensory experience has an independent physical reality. The term
hallucination is not ordinarily applied to the false perceptions that occur during
dreaming, while falling asleep (hypnagogic), or when awakening (hypnopompic).
Transient hallucinatory experiences may occur in people without a mental
disorder.

hedonism

Pleasure-seeking behavior. Contrast with anhedonia.

5-HIAA (5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid) A major metabolite of serotonin, a biogenic amine found
in the brain and other organs. Functional deficits of serotonin in the central
nervous system have been implicated in certain types of major mood disorders, and
particularly in suicide and impulsivity.

hippocampus Olfactory brain; a sea-horse¾shaped structure
located within the brain that is an important part of the limbic system. The
hippocampus is involved in some aspects of memory, in the control of the autonomic
functions, and in emotional expression.

hyperacusis Inordinate sensitivity to sounds; it may be on an
emotional or an organic basis.

hypersomnia Excessive sleepiness, as evidenced by prolonged
nocturnal sleep, difficulty maintaining an alert awake state during the day, or
undesired daytime sleep episodes. ideas of reference The feeling that casual
incidents and external events have a particular and unusual meaning that is
specific to the person. This is to be distinguished from a delusion of reference,
in which there is a belief that is held with delusional conviction

hypnagogic Referring to the semiconscious state immediately
preceding sleep; may include hallucinations that are of no pathological
significance.

hypnopompic Referring to the state immediately preceding
awakening; may include hallucinations that are of no pathological
significance.

I

id In Freudian theory,
the part of the personality that is the unconscious source of unstructured desires
and drives. See also ego; superego.

idealization A mental mechanism in which the person attributes
exaggeratedly positive qualities to the self or others.

ideas of reference Incorrect interpretations of casual
incidents and external events as having direct reference to oneself. May reach
sufficient intensity to constitute delusions.

identification A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, by
which one patterns oneself after some other person. Identification plays a major
role in the development of one's personality and specifically of the superego. To
be differentiated from imitation or role modeling, which is a conscious
process.

idiot savant A person with gross mental retardation who
nonetheless is capable of performing certain remarkable feats in sharply
circumscribed intellectual areas, such as calendar calculation or puzzle
solving.

illusion A
misperception or misinterpretation of a real external stimulus, such as hearing the
rustling of leaves as the sound of voices. See also hallucination.

imprinting A term in ethology referring to a process similar to
rapid learning or behavioral patterning that occurs at critical points in very
early stages of animal development. The extent to whi


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