Glossary of Technical Terms
AFFECT. A pattern of observable behaviors that is the expression of a
subjectively experienced feeling state (emotion). Common examples of affect are
euphoria, anger, and sadness. Affect is variable over time, in response to
changing emotional states, whereas mood refers to a pervasive and sustained
emotion.
A range of affect may be described as broad (normal), restricted
(constricted), blunted, or flat. What is considered the normal range of the
expression of affect varies considerably, both within and among different cultures
The normal expression of affect involves variability in facial expression, pitch of
voice, and hand and body movements. Restricted affect is characterized by a
clear reduction in the expressive range and intensity of affects. Blunted affect is
marked by a severe reduction in the intensity of affective expression. In flat affect
there is virtually no affective expression; generally the voice is monotonous and
the face, immobile
Affect is inappropriate when it is clearly discordant with the content of the
person's speech or ideation. Example: A patient smiled and laughed while
discussing demons who were persecuting him.
Affect is labile when it is characterized by repeated, rapid, and abrupt shifts.
Examples: An elderly man is tearful one moment and combative the next; a
young woman is observed by her friends to be friendly, gregarious, and happy
one moment and angry and abusive the next, without apparent reason.
AGITATION. See psychomotor agitation.
ANXIETY. Apprehension, tension, or uneasiness that stems from the anticipation
of danger, which may be internal or external. Some definitions of anxiety
distinguish it from fear by limiting it to anticipation of a danger whose source is
largely unknown, whereas fear is the response to a consciously recognized and
usually external threat or danger. The manifestations of anxiety and fear are the
same and include motor tension, autonomic hyperactivity, apprehensive
expectation, and vigilance and scanning.
Anxiety may be focused on an object, situation, or activity, which is avoided
(phobia), or may be unfocused (free-floating anxiety). It may be experienced in
discrete periods of sudden onset and be accompanied by physical symptoms
(panic attacks). When anxiety is focused on physical signs or symptoms and
causes preoccupation with the fear or belief of having a disease, it is termed
hypochondria�s.
ATTENTION. The ability to focus in a sustained manner on one activity. A
disturbance in attention may be manifested by difficulty in finishing tasks that
have been started, easy distractibility, or difficulty in concentrating on work.
BLOCKING. Interruption of a train of speech before a thought or idea has been
completed. After a period of silence, which may last from a few seconds to
minutes, the person indicates that he or she cannot recall what he or she has
been saying or meant to say. Blocking should be judged to be present only if the
person spontaneously describes losing his or her train of thought or if, upon
questioning by an interviewer, gives that as the reason for pausing.
CATATONIC BEHAVIOR. Marked motor anomalies, generally limited to
disturbances within the context of a diagnosis of a nonorganic psychotic
disorder.
Catatonic excitement. Excited motor activity, apparently purposeless and not
Influenced by external stimuli.
Catatonic negativism. An apparently motiveless resistance to all instructions
or attempts to be moved. When passive, the person may resist any effort to be
moved; when active, he or she may do the opposite of what is asked-for example,
firmly clench jaws when asked to open mouth.
Catatonic posturing. Voluntary assumption of an inappropriate or bizarre
posture, usually held for a long period of time. Example: A patient may stand with
arms out-stretched as if he were Jesus on the cross.
Catatonic rigidity. Maintenance of a rigid posture against all efforts to be
moved.
Catatonic stupor. Marked decrease in reactivity to the environment and
reduction in spontaneous movements and activity, sometimes to the point of
appearing to be unaware of one's surroundings.
Catatonic waxy flexibility. the person's limbs can be "molded" into any
position, which is then maintained. When the limb is being moved, it feels to the
examiner as if it were made of pliable wax.
CIRCUMSTANTIALITY. A term used to describe speech that is indirect and
delayed in reaching the point because of unnecessary, tedious details and
parenthetical remarks. Circumstantial replies or statements may be prolonged for
many minutes if the speaker is not interrupted and urged to get to the point.
Interviewers often respond to circumstantiality by interrupting the speaker in order
to complete the process of history-taking within an allotted time This may make it
difficult to distinguish loosening of associations from circumstantiality. In the
former there is a lack of connection between clauses, but in the latter the clauses
always retain a meaningful connection. In loosening of associations, the original
point is lost, whereas in circurustautiality, the speaker is always aware of the
original point, goal, or topic.
Circumstantiality is common in an Obsessive Compulsive Personality
Disorder and in many people without mental disorder.
CLANGING. Speech in which sounds, rather than meaningful, conceptual
relationships govern word choice; it may include rhyming and punning. The term
is generally applied only when it is a manifestation of a pathological condition;
thus, it would not be used to describe the rhyming word play of children. Example.
�Im not trying to make noise. I'm trying to make sense. If you can make sense out
of nonsense, well, have fun. I�m trying to make sense out of sense. I'm not
making sense (cents) anymore. I have to make dollars."
Clanging is observed most commonly in Schizophrenia and Manic
Episodes.
COMPULSION. Repetitive and seemingly purposeful behavior that is in response
to an obsession, or performed according to certain rules or in a stereotyped
fashion. The behavior is not an end in itself, but is designed to produce or prevent
some future state of affairs; the activity, however, either is not connected in a
realistic way with the state of affairs it is designed to produce or prevent, or may
be clearly excessive. The act is performed with a sense of subjective compulsion
coupled with a desire to resist it (at least initially); performing the particular act is
not pleasurable, although it may afford some relief of tension. Example: A person
feels compelled to wash her hands every time she shakes hands because of a
fear of contamination, which she recognizes as excessive.
Compulsions are characteristic of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
CONFABULATION. Fabrication of facts or events in response to questions about
situations or events that are not recalled because of memory impairment. It differs
from lying in that the person is not consciously attempting to deceive.
Confabulation is common in Amnesic Disorder.
CONVERSlON SYMPTOM. A loss or alteration of physical functioning that
suggests a physical disorder, but that is actually a direct expression of a
psychological conflict or need. The disturbance is not under voluntary control, and
is not explained by any physical disorder (this possibility having been excluded by
appropriate examinations).
Conversion symptoms are observed in Conversion Disorder, and may occur
in Schizophrenia.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS. Patterns of feelings, thoughts, or behaviors that are
relatively involuntary and arise in response to perceptions of psychic danger.
They are designed to hide or to alleviate the conflicts or stressors that give rise to
anxiety. Some defense mechanisms, such as 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. Defense mechanisms that are usually
adaptive, such as sublimation and humor, are not included here.
Acting-out. A mechanism in which the person acts without reflection or
apparent regard for negative consequences.
Autistic fantasy. A mechanism in which the person substitutes excessive
daydreaming for the pursuit of human relationships, more direct and effective
action, or problem solving.
Denial. A mechanism in which the person fails to acknowledge some aspect
of external reality that would be apparent to others.
Devaluation. A mechanism in which the person attributes exaggeratedly
negative qualities to self or others.
Displacement. A mechanism in which the person generalizes or redirects a
feeling about an object or a response to an object onto another, usually less
threatening, object.
Dissociation. A mechanism in which the person sustains a temporary
alteration in the integrative functions of consciousness or identity.
Idealization. A mechanism in which the person attributes exaggeratedly
positive qualities to self or others.
Intellectualization. A mechanism in which the person engages in excessive
abstract thinking to avoid experiencing disturbing feelings.
Isolation. A mechanism in which the person is unable to experience
simultaneously the cognitive and affective components of an experience because
the affect is kept from consciousness.
Passive aggression. A mechanism in which the person indirectly and
inassertively expresses aggression toward others.
Projection. A mechanism in which the person falsely attributes his or her own
unacknowledged feelings, impulses, or thoughts to others.
Rationalization. A mechanism in which the person devises reassuring or
self-serving, but incorrect, explanations for his or her own or others'
behavior.
Reaction formation. A mechanism in which the person substitutes behavior,
thoughts, or feelings that are diametrically opposed to his or her own
unacceptable ones.
Repression. A mechanism in which the person is unable to remember or to
be cognitively aware of disturbing wishes, feelings, thoughts, or experiences.
Somatization. A mechanism in which the person becomes preoccupied with
physical symptoms disproportionate to any actual physical disturbance.
Splitting. A mechanism in which the person views himself or herself or others
as all good or all bad, failing to integrate the positive and the negative qualities of
self and others into cohesive images; often the person alternately idealizes and
devalues the same person.
Suppression. A mechanism in which the person intentionally avoids thinking
about disturbing problems, desires, feelings, or experiences.
Undoing. A mechanism in which the person engages in behavior designed to
symbolically make amends for or negate previous thoughts, feelings, or
actions.
DELUSION A false personal belief based on incorrect inference about external
reality and firmly sustained in spite of what almost everyone else believes and in
spite of 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 (i.e., it is not an article of religious faith).
When a false belief involves an extreme value judgment, it is regarded as a
delusion only when the judgment is so extreme as to defy credibility. Example: if
someone claims he or she is terrible and has disappointed his or her family, this
is generally not regarded as a delusion even if an objective assessment of the
situation would lead observers to think otherwise; but if someone claims he or
she is the worst sinner in the world, this would generally be considered a
delusional conviction. Similarly, a person judged by most people to he moderately
underweight who asserts that he or she is fat would not be regarded as
delusional; but one with Anorexia Nervosa who, at the point of extreme
emaciation, insists he or she is fat could rightly be considered delusional.
A delusion should be distinguished from a hallucination, which is a false
sensory perception (although a hallucination may give rise to the delusion that the
perception is true). A delusion is also to be distinguished from an overvalued
idea, in which an unreasonable belief or idea is not as firmly held as is the case
with a delusion.
Delusions are subdivided according to their content. Some of the more
common types are listed below.
Delusion of being controlled. A delusion in which feelings, impulses, thoughts,
or actions are experienced as being not one's own, as being imposed by some
external force. This does not include the mere conviction that one is acting as an
agent of God, has had a curse placed on him or her, is the victim of fate, or is not
sufficiently assertive. The symptom should be judged present only when the
subject experiences his or her will, thoughts, or feelings as operating under some
external force. Examples: A man claimed that his words were not his own, but
those of his father; a student believed that his actions were under the control of a
yogi; a housewife believed that sexual feelings were being put into her body from
without.
Delusion, bizarre. A false belief that involves a phenomenon that the person's
culture would regard as totally implausible. example: A man believed that when
his adenoids had been removed in childhood, a box had been inserted into his
head. and that wires had been placed in his head so that the voice he heard was
that of the governor.
Delusion, grandiose. A delusion whose content involves an exaggerated
sense of one's importance power, knowledge, or identity. It may have religious,
somatic, or other theme.
Delusion, mood-congruent. See mood-congruent psychotic features.
Delusion, mood-incongruent. See mood-incongruent psychotic
features.
Delusion, nihilistic. A delusion involving the theme of nonexistence of the
self or part of the self, others, or the world. examples: "The world is finished"; "I
no longer have a brain"; "There is no need to eat, because I have no insides." A
somatic delusion may also be a nihilistic delusion if the emphasis is on
nonexistence of the body or a part of the body.
Delusion, persecutory. A delusion in which the central theme is that a person
or group is being attacked, harassed, cheated, persecuted, or conspired against.
Usually the subject or someone or some group or institution close to him or her is
singled out as the object of the persecution.
It is recommended that the term paranoid delusion not be used, because its
meanings are multiple, confusing, and contradictory. lt has often been employed
to refer to both persecutory and grandiose delusions because of their presence in
the Paranoid Type of Schizophrenia.
Delusion of poverty. A delusion that the person is, or will be, bereft of all, or
virtually all, material possessions.
Delusion of reference. A delusion whose theme is that events, objects, or
other people in the person's immediate environment have a particular and
unusual significance, usually of a negative or pejorative nature. This differs from
an idea of reference, in which the false belief is not as firmly held as in a delusion.
If the delusion of reference involves a persecutory theme, then a delusion of
persecution is present as well. exampIes: A woman was convinced that programs
on the radio were directed especially to her: when recipes were broadcast, it was
to tell her to prepare wholesome food for her child and stop feeding her candy;
when dance music was broadcast, it was to tell her to stop what she was doing
and start dancing, and perhaps even to resume ballet lessons. A patient noted
that the room number of his therapist's office was the same as the number of the
hospital room in which his father died and believed that this meant there was a
plot to kill him.
Delusion, somatic. A delusion whose main content pertains to the functioning
of one's body. Examples: One's brain is rotting; one is pregnant despite being
postmenopausal.
Extreme value judgments about the body may, under certain circumstances,
also be considered somatic delusions. Example; A person insists that his nose is
grossly misshapen despite lack of confirmation of this by observers.
Hypochondriacal delusions are also somatic delusions when they involve
specific changes in the functioning or structure of the body rather than merely an
insistent belief that one has a disease.
Page 18
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Glossary of Technical Terms
AFFECT. A pattern of observable behaviors that is the expression of a subjectively experienced feeling state (emotion). Common examples of affect are euphoria, anger, and sadness. Affect is variable over time, in response to changing emotional states, whereas mood refers to a pervasive and sustained emotion.
A range of affect may be described as broad (normal), restricted (constricted), blunted, or flat. What is considered the normal range of the expression of affect varies considerably, both within and among different cultures The normal expression of affect involves variability in facial expression, pitch of voice, and hand and body movements. Restricted affect is characterized by a clear reduction in the expressive range and intensity of affects. Blunted affect is marked by a severe reduction in the intensity of affective expression. In flat affect there is virtually no affective expression; generally the voice is monotonous and the face, immobile
Affect is inappropriate when it is clearly discordant with the content of the person's speech or ideation. Example: A patient smiled and laughed while discussing demons who were persecuting him.
Affect is labile when it is characterized by repeated, rapid, and abrupt shifts. Examples: An elderly man is tearful one moment and combative the next; a young woman is observed by her friends to be friendly, gregarious, and happy one moment and angry and abusive the next, without apparent reason.
AGITATION. See psychomotor agitation.
ANXIETY. Apprehension, tension, or uneasiness that stems from the anticipation of danger, which may be internal or external. Some definitions of anxiety distinguish it from fear by limiting it to anticipation of a danger whose source is largely unknown, whereas fear is the response to a consciously recognized and usually external threat or danger. The manifestations of anxiety and fear are the same and include motor tension, autonomic hyperactivity, apprehensive expectation, and vigilance and scanning.
Anxiety may be focused on an object, situation, or activity, which is avoided (phobia), or may be unfocused (free-floating anxiety). It may be experienced in discrete periods of sudden onset and be accompanied by physical symptoms (panic attacks). When anxiety is focused on physical signs or symptoms and causes preoccupation with the fear or belief of having a disease, it is termed hypochondria�s.
ATTENTION. The ability to focus in a sustained manner on one activity. A disturbance in attention may be manifested by difficulty in finishing tasks that have been started, easy distractibility, or difficulty in concentrating on work.
BLOCKING. Interruption of a train of speech before a thought or idea has been completed. After a period of silence, which may last from a few seconds to minutes, the person indicates that he or she cannot recall what he or she has been saying or meant to say. Blocking should be judged to be present only if the person spontaneously describes losing his or her train of thought or if, upon questioning by an interviewer, gives that as the reason for pausing.
CATATONIC BEHAVIOR. Marked motor anomalies, generally limited to disturbances within the context of a diagnosis of a nonorganic psychotic disorder.
Catatonic excitement. Excited motor activity, apparently purposeless and not Influenced by external stimuli.
Catatonic negativism. An apparently motiveless resistance to all instructions or attempts to be moved. When passive, the person may resist any effort to be moved; when active, he or she may do the opposite of what is asked-for example, firmly clench jaws when asked to open mouth.
Catatonic posturing. Voluntary assumption of an inappropriate or bizarre posture, usually held for a long period of time. Example: A patient may stand with arms out-stretched as if he were Jesus on the cross.
Catatonic rigidity. Maintenance of a rigid posture against all efforts to be moved.
Catatonic stupor. Marked decrease in reactivity to the environment and reduction in spontaneous movements and activity, sometimes to the point of appearing to be unaware of one's surroundings.
Catatonic waxy flexibility. the person's limbs can be "molded" into any position, which is then maintained. When the limb is being moved, it feels to the examiner as if it were made of pliable wax.
CIRCUMSTANTIALITY. A term used to describe speech that is indirect and delayed in reaching the point because of unnecessary, tedious details and parenthetical remarks. Circumstantial replies or statements may be prolonged for many minutes if the speaker is not interrupted and urged to get to the point. Interviewers often respond to circumstantiality by interrupting the speaker in order to complete the process of history-taking within an allotted time This may make it difficult to distinguish loosening of associations from circumstantiality. In the former there is a lack of connection between clauses, but in the latter the clauses always retain a meaningful connection. In loosening of associations, the original point is lost, whereas in circurustautiality, the speaker is always aware of the original point, goal, or topic.
Circumstantiality is common in an Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder and in many people without mental disorder.
CLANGING. Speech in which sounds, rather than meaningful, conceptual relationships govern word choice; it may include rhyming and punning. The term is generally applied only when it is a manifestation of a pathological condition; thus, it would not be used to describe the rhyming word play of children. Example. �Im not trying to make noise. I'm trying to make sense. If you can make sense out of nonsense, well, have fun. I�m trying to make sense out of sense. I'm not making sense (cents) anymore. I have to make dollars."
Clanging is observed most commonly in Schizophrenia and Manic Episodes.
COMPULSION. Repetitive and seemingly purposeful behavior that is in response to an obsession, or performed according to certain rules or in a stereotyped fashion. The behavior is not an end in itself, but is designed to produce or prevent some future state of affairs; the activity, however, either is not connected in a realistic way with the state of affairs it is designed to produce or prevent, or may be clearly excessive. The act is performed with a sense of subjective compulsion coupled with a desire to resist it (at least initially); performing the particular act is not pleasurable, although it may afford some relief of tension. Example: A person feels compelled to wash her hands every time she shakes hands because of a fear of contamination, which she recognizes as excessive.
Compulsions are characteristic of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
CONFABULATION. Fabrication of facts or events in response to questions about situations or events that are not recalled because of memory impairment. It differs from lying in that the person is not consciously attempting to deceive.
Confabulation is common in Amnesic Disorder.
CONVERSlON SYMPTOM. A loss or alteration of physical functioning that suggests a physical disorder, but that is actually a direct expression of a psychological conflict or need. The disturbance is not under voluntary control, and is not explained by any physical disorder (this possibility having been excluded by appropriate examinations).
Conversion symptoms are observed in Conversion Disorder, and may occur in Schizophrenia.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS. Patterns of feelings, thoughts, or behaviors that are relatively involuntary and arise in response to perceptions of psychic danger. They are designed to hide or to alleviate the conflicts or stressors that give rise to anxiety. Some defense mechanisms, such as 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. Defense mechanisms that are usually adaptive, such as sublimation and humor, are not included here.
Acting-out. A mechanism in which the person acts without reflection or apparent regard for negative consequences.
Autistic fantasy. A mechanism in which the person substitutes excessive daydreaming for the pursuit of human relationships, more direct and effective action, or problem solving.
Denial. A mechanism in which the person fails to acknowledge some aspect of external reality that would be apparent to others.
Devaluation. A mechanism in which the person attributes exaggeratedly negative qualities to self or others.
Displacement. A mechanism in which the person generalizes or redirects a feeling about an object or a response to an object onto another, usually less threatening, object.
Dissociation. A mechanism in which the person sustains a temporary alteration in the integrative functions of consciousness or identity.
Idealization. A mechanism in which the person attributes exaggeratedly positive qualities to self or others.
Intellectualization. A mechanism in which the person engages in excessive abstract thinking to avoid experiencing disturbing feelings.
Isolation. A mechanism in which the person is unable to experience simultaneously the cognitive and affective components of an experience because the affect is kept from consciousness.
Passive aggression. A mechanism in which the person indirectly and inassertively expresses aggression toward others.
Projection. A mechanism in which the person falsely attributes his or her own unacknowledged feelings, impulses, or thoughts to others.
Rationalization. A mechanism in which the person devises reassuring or self-serving, but incorrect, explanations for his or her own or others' behavior.
Reaction formation. A mechanism in which the person substitutes behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are diametrically opposed to his or her own unacceptable ones.
Repression. A mechanism in which the person is unable to remember or to be cognitively aware of disturbing wishes, feelings, thoughts, or experiences.
Somatization. A mechanism in which the person becomes preoccupied with physical symptoms disproportionate to any actual physical disturbance.
Splitting. A mechanism in which the person views himself or herself or others as all good or all bad, failing to integrate the positive and the negative qualities of self and others into cohesive images; often the person alternately idealizes and devalues the same person.
Suppression. A mechanism in which the person intentionally avoids thinking about disturbing problems, desires, feelings, or experiences.
Undoing. A mechanism in which the person engages in behavior designed to symbolically make amends for or negate previous thoughts, feelings, or actions.
DELUSION A false personal belief based on incorrect inference about external reality and firmly sustained in spite of what almost everyone else believes and in spite of 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 (i.e., it is not an article of religious faith).
When a false belief involves an extreme value judgment, it is regarded as a delusion only when the judgment is so extreme as to defy credibility. Example: if someone claims he or she is terrible and has disappointed his or her family, this is generally not regarded as a delusion even if an objective assessment of the situation would lead observers to think otherwise; but if someone claims he or she is the worst sinner in the world, this would generally be considered a delusional conviction. Similarly, a person judged by most people to he moderately underweight who asserts that he or she is fat would not be regarded as delusional; but one with Anorexia Nervosa who, at the point of extreme emaciation, insists he or she is fat could rightly be considered delusional.
A delusion should be distinguished from a hallucination, which is a false sensory perception (although a hallucination may give rise to the delusion that the perception is true). A delusion is also to be distinguished from an overvalued idea, in which an unreasonable belief or idea is not as firmly held as is the case with a delusion.
Delusions are subdivided according to their content. Some of the more common types are listed below.
Delusion of being controlled. A delusion in which feelings, impulses, thoughts, or actions are experienced as being not one's own, as being imposed by some external force. This does not include the mere conviction that one is acting as an agent of God, has had a curse placed on him or her, is the victim of fate, or is not sufficiently assertive. The symptom should be judged present only when the subject experiences his or her will, thoughts, or feelings as operating under some external force. Examples: A man claimed that his words were not his own, but those of his father; a student believed that his actions were under the control of a yogi; a housewife believed that sexual feelings were being put into her body from without.
Delusion, bizarre. A false belief that involves a phenomenon that the person's culture would regard as totally implausible. example: A man believed that when his adenoids had been removed in childhood, a box had been inserted into his head. and that wires had been placed in his head so that the voice he heard was that of the governor.
Delusion, grandiose. A delusion whose content involves an exaggerated sense of one's importance power, knowledge, or identity. It may have religious, somatic, or other theme.
Delusion, mood-congruent. See mood-congruent psychotic features.
Delusion, mood-incongruent. See mood-incongruent psychotic features.
Delusion, nihilistic. A delusion involving the theme of nonexistence of the self or part of the self, others, or the world. examples: "The world is finished"; "I no longer have a brain"; "There is no need to eat, because I have no insides." A somatic delusion may also be a nihilistic delusion if the emphasis is on nonexistence of the body or a part of the body.
Delusion, persecutory. A delusion in which the central theme is that a person or group is being attacked, harassed, cheated, persecuted, or conspired against. Usually the subject or someone or some group or institution close to him or her is singled out as the object of the persecution.
It is recommended that the term paranoid delusion not be used, because its meanings are multiple, confusing, and contradictory. lt has often been employed to refer to both persecutory and grandiose delusions because of their presence in the Paranoid Type of Schizophrenia.
Delusion of poverty. A delusion that the person is, or will be, bereft of all, or virtually all, material possessions.
Delusion of reference. A delusion whose theme is that events, objects, or other people in the person's immediate environment have a particular and unusual significance, usually of a negative or pejorative nature. This differs from an idea of reference, in which the false belief is not as firmly held as in a delusion. If the delusion of reference involves a persecutory theme, then a delusion of persecution is present as well. exampIes: A woman was convinced that programs on the radio were directed especially to her: when recipes were broadcast, it was to tell her to prepare wholesome food for her child and stop feeding her candy; when dance music was broadcast, it was to tell her to stop what she was doing and start dancing, and perhaps even to resume ballet lessons. A patient noted that the room number of his therapist's office was the same as the number of the hospital room in which his father died and believed that this meant there was a plot to kill him.
Delusion, somatic. A delusion whose main content pertains to the functioning of one's body. Examples: One's brain is rotting; one is pregnant despite being postmenopausal.
Extreme value judgments about the body may, under certain circumstances, also be considered somatic delusions. Example; A person insists that his nose is grossly misshapen despite lack of confirmation of this by observers.
Hypochondriacal delusions are also somatic delusions when they involve specific changes in the functioning or structure of the body rather than merely an insistent belief that one has a disease.