Glossary

Habitually silent, reserved, or uncommunicative; not inclined to conversation.

Perception of being touched or of something being under one's skin such as the sensation of pins being stuck into one's finger. The sensation of something crawling under one's skin is called formication; it occurs most frequently in alcohol withdrawal syndrome and in cocaine withdrawal.

Replying to a question in an oblique or irrelevant way. The person does not get around to answering the question.

The collective grouping for thought insertion, withdrawal and broadcasting.

A sudden obstruction or interruption in spontaneous flow of thinking or speaking, perceived as an absence or deprivation of thought.

The experience that one's thoughts are being transmitted from one's mind and broadcast to everyone.

Refers to what the person is talking about, rather than how the person is thinking. Preoccupations, obsessions, phobias, rituals and delusions are examples of disturbance in thought content.

Any disturbance of thinking that affects language, communication, or thought content. Manifestations range from simple blocking and mild circumstantiality to profound loosening of associations, incoherence, and delusions; characterised by a failure to follow semantic and syntactic rules that is inconsistent with the person's education, intelligence, or cultural background.

Form means the "arrangement of parts". Disturbances in the form of thought are disturbances in the logical process of thought - more simply, disturbances in the logical connections between ideas. Circumstantial speech, flight of ideas, loosening of associations, perseverance and blocking are examples of disturbances in thought form.

The subjective feeling that thoughts in one's mind are not one's own, often explained by a secondary delusion of insertion by some outside agency. The experience of alien thoughts being inserted into the mind.