Glossary of Descriptive Psychopathology and Neuropsychiatry
Alastair Macdonald, Owen Box, Frances Klemperer.   Martin Dunitz, London 2000

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Updates to the book (A-Z)




Catatonic symptom [correction]

includes freezing (holding one posture) (not "one's" posture)...

Fureur d'analyse [addition]

The patient subjects detail of an issue to repeated and increasingly complex analysis, on each cycle including more and more factors that might possibly have a bearing on it, so that the main issue becomes completely obscured.  It is a psychological defence against unpalatable truth.

Insight [addition]

The patient's view of the source of his or her problems and symptoms. If used in the sense of a category (i.e. "no insight", or "partial insight") allows criticism that insight merely indicates agreement with the examiner, who may, of course, be wrong.

Phoneme [addition]

Wernicke's term for third-person auditory hallucinations, occurring principally in schizophrenia. Note that in linguistics the term refers not to hallucinations but to a unit of significant sound.

Wig Agnosia [addition- thanks Rob Howard]

Indifference to obviously false toupe or wig. Seen in some North American old age psychiatrists and mania.