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 concer n 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 which imprinting occurs in human development has not been established.

inappropriate affect An affect type that represents an unusual affective expression that does not match with the content of what is being said or thought.

incoherence Speech or thinking that is essentially incomprehensible to others because words or phrases are joined together without a logical or meaningful connection. This disturbance occurs within clauses, in contrast to derailment, in which the disturbance is between clauses. This has sometimes been referred to as "word salad" to convey the degree of linguistic disorganization. Mildly ungrammatical constructions or idiomatic usages characteristic of particular regional or cultural backgrounds, lack of education, or low intelligence should not be considered incoherence. The term is generally not applied when there is evidence that the disturbance in speech is due to an aphasia.

incorporation A primitive defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which the psychic representation of a person, or parts of the person, is figuratively ingested.

individuation A process of differentiation, the end result of which is development of the individual personality that is separate and distinct from all others.

indoleamine One of a group of biogenic amines (e.g., serotonin) that contains a five-membered, nitrogen-containing indole ring and an amine group within its chemical structure. inhibition Behavioral evidence of an unconscious defense against forbidden instinctual drives; may interfere with or restrict specific activities.

insomnia A subjective complaint of difficulty falling or staying asleep or poor sleep quality. Types of insomnia include:

initial insomnia Difficulty in falling asleep.

instinct An inborn drive. The primary human instincts include self-preservation, sexuality,and according to some proponents the death instinct, of which aggression is one manifestation.

integration The useful organization and incorporation of both new and old data, experience, and emotional capacities into the personality. Also refers to the organization and amalgamation of functions at various levels of psychosexual development.

intellectualization A mental mechanism in which the person engages in excessive abstract thinking to avoid confrontation with conflicts or disturbing feelings.

intersex condition A condition in which an individual shows intermingling, in various degrees, of the characteristics of each sex, including physical form, reproductive organs, and sexual behavior.

introspectionSelf-observation; examination of one's feelings, often as a result of psychotherapy.

introversion Preoccupation with oneself and accompanying reduction of interest in the outside world. Contrast to extraversion.

isolation A defense mechanism operating unconsciously central to obsessive-compulsive phenomena in which the affect is detached from an idea and rendered unconscious, leaving the conscious idea colorless and emotionally neutral.

K

Klinefelter's syndrome Chromosomal defect in males in which there is an extra X chromosome; manifestations may include underdeveloped testes, physical feminization, sterility, and mental retardation.

koro  A culture specific syndrome of China involving fear of retraction of penis into abdomen with the belief that this will lead to death.

L

la belle indifférence Literally, "beautiful indifference." Seen in certain patients with conversion disorders who show an inappropriate lack of concern about their disabilities. labile Rapidly shifting (as applied to emotions); unstable.

labile affect An affect type that indicates abnormal sudden rapid shifts in affect.

latah A culture specific syndrome of Southeast Asia involving startle-induced disorganization, hypersuggestibility, automatic obedience, and echopraxia.

latent content  The hidden (i.e., unconscious) meaning of thoughts or actions, especially in dreams or fantasies. In dreams, it is expressed in distorted, disguised, condensed, and symbolic form.

learned helplessness A condition in which a person attempts to establish and maintain contact with another by adopting a helpless, powerless stance.

lethologica Temporary inability to remember a proper noun or name.

libido The psychic drive or energy usually associated with the sexual instinct. (Sexual is used here in the broad sense to include pleasure and love-object seeking.)

locus coeruleus A small area in the brain stem containing norepinephrine neurons that is considered to be a key brain center for anxiety and fear.

http://www.abess.com/glossary.html

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