1. Abstraction : Ability to separate a quality from an object and to think or to perform symbolically , e.g. : boat is
concrete, sailing is abstract; impaired in brain dysfunction , schizophrenia .
2. Affect : Subjective feeling tone that accompanies an idea or mental representation; objective behavioral component
described as blunted (severely reduced) , flat (abyent) , restricted (reduced), appropriate (harmonious), inappropriate
(out of harmony), and labile (unstable); one of Bleuler's four As (impaired in schizophrenia) .
3. Aggression : Hostile or angry feelings, thoughts, or actions directed toward an object or person ; seen in mania,
impulse-control disorders, e.g., intermittent explosive disorders .
4. Agitation : Tension state in which anxiety is manifested in psychomotor area with hyperactivity and general perturbation
; seen in depression, schizophrenia, mania .
5. Ambivalence : Coexistence of opposing attitudes or emotions, e.g., loves and hate, toward a given person or thing at
the same time; one of Bleuler's four As (seen in sybizophrenia) .
6. Amnesia: Loss of memory manifested by total or partial inability to recall past experiences ; seen in brain dysfunction,
amnestic disorder, dissociative disorders, e.g., dissociative fugue.
Anterograde (AA) : Loss of immediate, short-term memory; occurs after trauma, drug intake, transient
ischemic attack .
Localized : Loss of memory for an isolated event; not a total loss of memory; also referred to as lacunar
amnesia and patch amnesia; seen in brain lesions , anxiety, fugue.
Retrograde (RA) : Loss of past, remote, long-term memory; occurs in dementia .
7. Anhedonia : Absence of pleasure in acts that normally are pleasurable; most common symptom is depression.
8. Anxiety : Feeling of dread, impending doom; seen in anxiety disorders, schizopfrenia, mood disorders.
9. Apathy : Lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern; common in depression .
10. Aphasia : Impaired or absent communication by speech, writing, or signs, due to dysfunction of brain centers in the
dominant hemisphere .
11. Ataxia : Inability to coordinate muscles in the execution of voluntary movement; seen in cerebellar lesions, tardive
dyskinesia .
12. Autistic thinking : Form of subjective thinking with total disregard of reality; one of Bleuler's four As (seen in
schizophrenia) .
13. Automatism : Condition in which a person engages in activity without conscious knowledge of doing so.
14. Blocking : Sudden cessation in the train of thought or in the midst of a sentence; also known as thought
deprivation; common in schizophrenia .
15. Catalepsy : Inordinate maintenance of postures or physical attitudes; synonymous with flexibilitas cerea or waxy
flexibility ; seen in catatonic type of schizophrenia .
16. Cataplexy : Temporary paralysis or immobilization and collapse caused by strong emotions ; part of narcolepsy
17. Catatonia : Type of schizophrenia characterized by periods of physical rigidity, negativism, excitement, and stupor .
Catatonic excitement : Marked agitation, impulsivity, and aggressive behavior.
Catatonic rigidity
: Rigidy posturing and stereotypical behavior.
18. Circumstantiality : Thought and speech associated with unnecessary detail that is usually relevant to a question and
that ultimately leads to an answer; seen in schizo-phrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder .
19. Clang association : Association, i.e., relationship, based on similarity of sound , without regard for differences in
meaning; common in mania .
20. Clouding of consciousness : Impairment of orientation, perception, and attention; seen in brain dysfunctions.
21. Cognition : Quality of knowing, including perceiving, recognizing, judging, sensing , reasoning, and imagining; impaired
in brain dysfunction, mental retardation, cognitive disorders .
22. Coma : Most profound degree of stupor in which all consciousness is lost and all voluntary activity ceases; organically
based .
23. Compulsion : Irresistible impulse to perform an irrational act; seen in impulse-control and obsessive-compulsive
disorders .
24. Confabulation : Fabrication of stories in response to questions about situations or events that are not recalled.
25. Conflict : Mental struggle that arises from simultaneous operation of opposing impulses, drives, or external
(environmental) or internal demands; called intrapsychic when conflict is between forces within the personality,
extrapsychic when conflict is between the self and the environment .
26. Confusional state : Disturbed orientation with respect to time, place, or person .
27. Consciousness : Awareness of one's own internal thoughts and feelings and ability to recognize external environment;
impaired in brain dysfunction, delirium, and dissociative fugue and other dissociative states .
28. Coprolalia : Involuntary utterance of vulgar or obscene words; seen in Tourette' s disorder.
29. Déjå entendu : Feeling that one is hearing or perceiving what one has heard before; seen in anxiety disorders, fatigue.
30. Déjå vu : Feeling that one is seeing or experiencing what one has seen before; seen in anxiety disorders, fatigue .
31. Delusion : False belief, i.e., one not shared by others, that is firmly maintained, even though contradicted by social
reality; most common in schizophrenia .
Grandiose delusion : Belief that one is possessed of greatness , megalomania , such ideas are refered to as
delusions of grandeur ; seen in schizophrenia, mania. tertiary syphilis; a variation is that someone of high
social is deeply in love with the person , usually a woman—also called erotomuniu, Clérembault’s syndrome
and delusional loving .
Induced delusion : Hallucination aroused in one person by another; also called folie a deux .
Infidelity delusion : False belief that a loved one is unfaithful, e.g., amorous paranoia .
Persecutory (paranoid) delusion : Excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others,
characterized by systematized delusions of persecution; seen in paranoid schizophrenia .
Somatic delusion : Belief that patient's body or parts of the body are diseased or distorted .
32. Depersonalization : Feeling of having lost one's personal identity and of being different, strange, or unreal ; part of
dissociative disorders .
33. Depression : Feeling tone characterized by sadness, apathy, pessimism, and a sense of loneliness ; part of major
depressive and other mood disorders .
34. Derealization : Feeling of changed reality ; environment is strange or unreal; common in anxiety and dissociative
disorders .
35. Dereism : Mental activity not in accordance with reality, logic , or experience .
36. Disorientation : Loss of awareness of position of self in relation to space,time, or other persons; confusion .
37. Disytractibility : Condition in which the patient changes from topic to topic in accor- dance with stimuli from within and
from without; seen in mania .
38. Dysarthria : Difficulty in speech production due to incoordination of speech apparatus .
39. Dyskinesia : Any disturbance of movement .
40. Echolalia : Imitative repetition of speech of another ; seen in schizophrenia .
41. Echopraxia: Imitative repetition of movements of another; sometimes seen in catatonic schizophrenia .
42. Ecstasy : State of elation beyond reason and control ; trance state of overwhelming emotion, e.g., religious
fervor .
43. Elation : Affect consisting of feelings of euphoria, triumph, intense self-satisfaction, or optimism .
44. Euphoria : Exaggerated feeling of physical or emotional well-being, usually of psychological origin; seen in
brain dysfunctions, drug-induced and other states .
45. Exaltation : Excessively intensified sense of well-being ; seen in mania.
46. Fear : Unpleasant emotional and physiological response to recognized sources of danger (to be distinguished
from anxiety) .
47. Flight of ideas : Rapid shifting from one topic to another ; also called topical flight; themes can sometimes
be followed ; part of manic episode.
48. Grandiosity : Feelings of great importance; absurd exaggeration ; seen in mania, schizophrenia
49. Hallucination : Sensory perception for which there is no external stimulus; seen in schizophrenia, toxic
psychoses.
- Auditory hallucination : Associated with sound; most common in Schizophrenia
- Gustatory hallucination : Associated with taste.
- Haptic hallucination : Associated with sensation of touch; common in DTs , cocainism
- Hypnagogic hallucination : Occurs upon awakening.
- Lilliputian hallucination : Hallucinated object appears reduced in size; also called microptic
hallucination; seen in toxic psychoses .
- Visual hallucination : Associated with sight .
50. Hypermnesia : Exaggerated memory ; ability to recall material not ordinarily available to memory process .
51. Hypochondriasis : Somatic overconcern with and morbid attention to details of body Functioning ;
exaggeration of any symptom .
52. Ideas of reference : Incorrect interpretation of casual incidents and external events as directly referring to
oneself ; may become intense enough to constitute delusions .
53. Ideas of unreality : Thoughts that events are artificial, illusory, unpredictable, or do not exist ; seen in
schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders .
54. Ideé fixe : Fixed idea ; describes a compulsive drive, an obsessive idea, or a delusion .
55. Illusion : Erroneous perception ; false response to a sensory stimulus; seen in schizo- phrenia, toxic
psychoses.
56. Incoherence : Quality or state of being loose ; lacking cohesion.
57. Insight : Knowledge of objective reality of a situation; person is aware of a mental problem .
58. Intelligence quotient (I.Q.) : Numerical rating determined through psychological testing that indicates
approximate relationship of person's mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA); expressed mathematically as
I.Q. = (MA/CA) X 100.
59. Intoxication : State due to recent ingestion or presence in the body of a chemical agent , causing
maladaptive behavior because of its effects on the central nervous system .
60. Judgment : Ability to recognize true relation of ideas ; capacity to draw correct conclusions from experience;
impaired in schizophrenia, brain dysfunction .
61. La belle indifférence : Literally means beautiful indifference ; condition of certain patients with conversion
disorders who show an inappropriate lack of concern about their disabilities .
62. Logorrhea : Uncontrollable, excessive talking ; seen in mania, schizophrenia .
63. Loosening of associations : Various disturbances of associations that render speech
64. (and thought ) inexact , vague, diffuse, unfocused ; one of Bleuler's four As (seen in schizophrenia).
65. Macropsia : False perception that objects are larger than they really are; seen in drug intoxication .
66. Magical thinking : Conviction that thinking equates with doing; characterized by lack of realistic relation
between cause and effect ; occurs in dreams, children, primitive peoples, and patients under a variety of
conditions; seen in obsessive compulsive disorder .
67. Mannerism : Gesture or other form of expression peculiar to a given person; seen in schizophrenia.
Memory : Ability, process, or act of remembering or recalling; ability to reproduce what has been learned or
experienced .
Immediate (short-term) memory : Refers to immediate retention, i.e.. events of the past few
moments ; also known as working memory and buffer memory .
Recent memory : Refers to events over past few days .
Remote (long-term) memory : Refers to events in distant past .
Mood : Feeling tone, particularly as experienced internally by a person .
Mood-congruent : In harmony; mood-appropriate; ideas consistent with mood; common in bipolar disorder.
Mood-incongruent : Mood-inappropriate; ideas out of harmony with mood ; common in schizophrenia.
68.
69. Mutism : Inability to speak ; common in catatonic schizophrenia, fugue states .
70. Negativism : Opposition of resistance , either covert or overt , to outside suggestions Or advice; may be seen
in schizophrenia .
71. Neologism : New word created by patient, which is often a blend of other words; seen in schizophrenia .
72. Nihilism : Feelings of nonexistence and hopelessness ; may assume delusional proportions ; common in
depression.
73. Obsession : Idea, emotion, or impulse that repetitively and insistently forces itself into consciousness,
although it is unwelcome; part of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
74. Orientation : Awareness of one's self in relation to time, place, or person ; lost in brain dysfunction, delirium.
75. Panic : Sudden, overwhelming anxiety of such intensity that it produces terror and physiological changes .
76. Paucity of speech : Limited use of speech; seen in autistic disorder, catatonic schizophrenia, major
depressive disorder .
77. Perseveration : Involuntary, excessive continuation or recurrence of a response or activity, most often
verbal; seen in schizophrenia, e.g., perseverative speech .
78. Phobia : A morbid fear associated with extreme anxiety; part of specific and social phobias and agoraphobia.
79. Psychomotor retardation : Slowed psychic activity, motor activity, or both; seen in depression, catatonic
schizophrenia. Opposite can also occur, i.e., psychomotor agitation .
80. Stereotypy : Constant, almost mechanical, repetition of any action; common in schizophrenia.
81. Stilted speech : Formal, stiff speech pattern .
82. Stupor : State in which a person does not react to or is unaware of the surroundings .
83. (in catatonic schizophrenic stupor the unawareness is more apparent than real ); due to neurological or
psychiatric disorders .
84. Thought broadcasting : Delusion about thoughts being aired to the outside world; one of Schneider's first
rank symptoms (seen in schizophrenia).
85. Thought disorder : Disturbance of speech, communication, or content of thought, e•g., delusions, ideas of
reference, poverty of thought, flight of ideas, perseveration, loosening of associations; can be caused by a
functional mental disorder or a medical condition; characteristic of schizophrenia .
86. Thought insertion : Delusion that thoughts are placed into the mind by outside influences. One of
Schneider's first rank symptoms (seen in schizophrenia).
87. Tic : Sudden involuntary muscle movement ; seen in tic disorders .
88. Verbigeration : Stereotypy of seemingly meaningless repetition of words or sentences .
89. Word salad : Mixture of words and phrases that lack comprehensive meaning or logical coherence;
commonly seen in schizophrenic states-