Glossary of psychiatry
This glossary covers terms found in the psychiatric literature; the word origins are primarily Greek, but there are also Latin, French, German, and English terms. Many of these terms refer to expressions dating from the early days of psychiatry in Europe; some are deprecated, and thus are of historic interest.
A
abreaction
is a process of vividly reliving repressed memories and emotions related to a past event. Sigmund Freud used hypnosis to rid his patients of pathological memories through abreaction.abulia
or Abulia, in neurology, refers to a lack of will or initiative. The individual is unable to act or make decisions independently. The condition may range from subtle to overwhelming in severity.achromatopsia
is a term referring to or acquired agnosia for color. This term includes color blindness.Achromatopsia is a condition characterized by a partial or total absence of color vision. People with complete achromatopsia cannot perceive any colors; they see only black, white, and shades of gray. Incomplete achromatopsia is a milder form of the condition that allows some color discrimination.
Achromatopsia also involves other problems with vision, including an increased sensitivity to light and glare, involuntary back-and-forth eye movements, and significantly reduced sharpness of vision. Affected individuals can also have farsightedness or, less commonly, nearsightedness. These vision problems develop in the first few months of life.
Achromatopsia is different from the more common forms of color vision deficiency, in which people can perceive color but have difficulty distinguishing between certain colors, such as red and green.
affect illusion
Mild illusions or misperceptions associated with changes in mood; e.g. mistaking a shadow for the presence of a person, perceiving movement in peripheral when there is none.akataphasia
Akataphasia refers to a syntactic disturbance of speech resulting from dissolution of logical ordering of thoughts. It manifests as rambling speech. Compare Derailment.akathisia
Akathisia refers to a subjective feeling of restlessness in the lower limbs that is related to abnormal activity in the extrapyramidal system in the brain, often due to antipsychotic medication. It tends to manifest as an inability to sit still.alexithymia
Alexithymia refers to an inability to identify and describe emotions in the self.Alice in Wonderland experience
In Alice in Wonderland experience, individuals perceive objects as appearing substantially smaller than in reality. Generally, the object appears far away or extremely close at the same time. An alternate term for this is somaesthetic aura. Also seealogia
Literally, this term means "not having words". The term may refer to either "poverty of speech" or "poverty of thought". In the former, speech, though adequate in verbiage, conveys very little information and may consist of stock phrases or vague references. In poverty of thought, by contrast, there is a far-reaching impoverishment of the entire thinking of the individual, who, as a result, says very little. It is typically a negative symptom of schizophrenia, although it may also be seen in advanced dementia.amenomania
is a disused psychiatric diagnosis.amok
The phrase "running amok" describes the behavior of an individual who is very agitated and may be at danger of causing harm to themselves or others. The syndrome of "Amok" is found in the DSM-IV TR.anhedonia
refers to an inability to experience pleasure, and may be described as a feeling of emotional emptiness. It can be a negative symptom of schizophrenia. It also may be seen in severe depressive states and schizoid personality disorder.anosognosia
is a condition in which a person who has a certain disability seems unaware of the existence of their disability. is a subtype of anosognosia in which the person with hemiplegia neglects one half of their body.Anton's syndrome
, occasionally known as Anton-Babinski syndrome, is a form of cortical blindness in which the individual denies the visual impairment. The individual may attempt to walk, bumping into objects and injuring himself.Anton syndrome is caused by damaging the occipital lobes bilaterally or from disrupting the pathway from the primary visual cortex into the visual association cortex.
anwesenheit
Anwesenheit refers to the false perception of an unfamiliar presence. It is commonly associated with periods of grief, schizophrenia and other emotional disturbances.apophanous perception
This is an alternate term for delusional perception. It is one of the Schneiderian first rank symptoms and is defined as a true perception, to which an individual attributes a false meaning.aphemia
Aphemia is the alternate term for mutism. Mutism is absence of speech with apparently normal level of consciousness. Mutism can be dissociative in which an individual stops speaking at once without involvement of any neurological or physical contributing factor; or it can be elective in which a child does not speak at all in certain situations but speaks well in other conditions. A rare cause of mutism is akinetic mutism which results due to a lesion around the third ventricle of the brain.apperception
is a normal phenomenon and refers to the ability to understand sensory inputs in their context, to interpret them and to incorporate them into experience. Failure of apperception is seen in delirious states.astasia-abasia
Astasia-abasia is a form of psychogenic gait disturbance in which gait becomes impaired in the absence of any neurological or physical pathology. The person usually walks in a bizarre manner. They stagger and appear as if going to fall, but always manage to catch hold of something in time. Sometimes these people cannot even stand, but on the other hand they are well able to move their legs while lying down or sitting. Often associated with conversion disorder or somatization disorder.asyndesis
Asyndesis means loosening of association. A milder form of derailment of thought, it is marked by the individual leaping from topic to topic which have only the most tenuous, if any, connection with each other. This is in contrast with, whereby the individual's successive ideas may be linked and "understandable" to the listener.See also and term introduced by.
autism
From aut = "self" and -ism = "state or orientation". Originally, Eugen Bleuler used this term to describe schizophrenia. In general, it refers to any tendency to be self-absorbed to such a degree that the feelings, thoughts and desires of a person are governed by their internal apprehension of the world and not by an external reality shared with others.Today the term is used most often to refer to a specific developmental syndrome.