psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Genetics (8 ed.)
... a generic term covering any behavioral disorder of a far-reaching and prolonged...
psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Sociology (4 ed.)
... A severe mental illness often contrasted with neurosis . Psychosis is characterized by disordered thought, feeling or perception, as in delusions or hallucinations, and is said to involve loss of contact with reality. Organic psychoses have known bodily causes, functional psychoses do not, although they are often assumed. The two major psychoses are schizophrenia and manic depression...
psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Social Work and Social Care (2 ed.)
... A generic term used in psychiatry to describe symptoms whereby the individual experiences an alternative perception of reality and is unable to distinguish personal subjective experience from the external world. The most common types of psychosis are hallucinations and delusions . Psychosis is a feature of particular types of mental disorder, such as schizophrenia , delusional disorder , and some affective disorders . It can also occur in certain physical illnesses and as a result of drug or alcohol...
psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Critical Theory (2 ed.)
... A nineteenth-century psychiatric term for madness that was taken up by psychoanalysis to designate severe mental disorders (e.g. schizophrenia), which it contrasted with the less severe disorders of neurosis . In general, psychoanalysis regards psychosis as untreatable because it has as its main symptom the complete breakdown of communication, thereby making the talking cure impossible. Yet, as the work of Jacques Lacan makes plain, psychoanalysis also regards psychosis as an incredibly important phenomenon from the point of view of studying...
psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Dentistry (2 ed.)
...psychosis n. ( adj. psychotic ) A severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, which may be chronic or transient, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality, causing a deterioration of normal social...
psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (2 ed.)
... A mental illness or disorder in which the sufferer may suffer from delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, or catatonia. There is considerable dispute as to whether people suffering from psychoses are more or less likely to commit...
psychosis Reference library
The Oxford Companion to the Body
..., introduced ‘psychosis’ to denote serious mental conditions affecting the personality; it was a subcategory of (Cullen's) neuroses. Psychosis soon comprised conditions besides the insanities and mental handicap, including minor psychological conditions and major organic disorders. Feuchtersleben coined the terms ‘psychosis’ and ‘psychopathy’ as identical terms because they were ‘diseases of the personality’ — and not of the body, nor of the soul or of the mind alone. Psychosis-neurosis debate Neurosis was already a popular term, and psychosis and neurosis...
psychosis Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Serious mental disorder in which the patient loses contact with reality, in contrast to neurosis . It may feature extreme mood swings, delusions or hallucinations, distorted judgment, and inappropriate emotional responses. Organic psychoses may spring from brain damage, advanced syphilis , senile dementia or advanced epilepsy . Functional psychoses, for which there is no known organic cause, include schizophrenia and manic depression...
psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Public Health (2 ed.)
...psychosis A mental disorder in which the affected person has such severe disorder of thoughts and emotions as to lose contact with reality. Persons with psychoses may have delusions or hallucinations, or their intellectual function may be disrupted to an extent that makes rational thought and judgment impossible. Psychoses may be acute short term or chronic and progressive. The causes include dementia, schizophrenia, paranoia, and acute mania. ...
psychosis n. Quick reference
Concise Medical Dictionary (10 ed.)
... n. one of a group of mental illnesses that feature loss of contact with reality. The psychoses include schizophrenia , major disorders of affect ( see bipolar affective disorder ), major paranoid states, drug intoxication, and organic mental disorders. They can be chronic or transient. Psychotic disorders manifest some of the following: delusions , hallucinations , severe thought disturbances, abnormal alteration of mood, poverty of thought, ego disturbances, and inappropriate affect . Many cases of psychotic illness respond well to ...
psychosis n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Nursing (8 ed.)
... [sy- koh -sis] n. one of a group of mental illnesses that feature loss of contact with reality. The psychoses include schizophrenia, major disorders of affect ( see bipolar affective disorder ), major paranoid states, and organic mental disorders. Psychotic disorders may feature delusions, hallucinations, severe thought disturbances, abnormal alteration of mood, poverty of thought, and grossly abnormal behaviour. Many cases of psychotic illness respond well to antipsychotic drugs. —psychotic [sy- kot -ik] ...
psychosis Reference library
Charles Rycroft
The Oxford Companion to the Mind (2 ed.)
... . The word ‘psychosis’ seems to have been coined in the mid-19th century and to have meant originally any kind of mental disturbance arising from whatever cause. But after the turn of the century its meaning was restricted by excluding both the mental consequences of familiar physical illnesses (such as delirium associated with fever) and the neuroses. In contemporary psychiatric terminology, ‘psychosis’ is a classificatory and descriptive term, referring to a specific range of illnesses and symptoms, the illnesses being those in which the patient's...
psychosis n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
... n . 1. Any mental disorder characterized by delusions and/or prominent hallucinations with or, in the narrowest definition of the term, without insight ( 3 ) into their pathological nature. Broader definitions include mental disorders characterized by other positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as disorganized thinking or catatonia . 2. In older psychological and psychiatric literature, mental impairment grossly interfering with the capacity to meet ordinary demands of life, or gross impairment in reality testing . Compare ...
traumatic psychosis n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...psychosis n . A psychosis ( 1 ) resulting from a head injury causing brain...
involutional psychosis n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...psychosis n . A variant form of involutional depression accompanied by persecutory delusions...
amphetamine psychosis n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...psychosis n. A condition resembling schizophrenia caused by an overdose of amphetamine...
prison psychosis n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
...psychosis n . A misleading name for Ganser syndrome , which is not classified as a psychosis ( 1 ) and is not peculiar to prisoners. [So called because Ganser's original description of it was based on three prisoners awaiting...
borderline psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Public Health (2 ed.)
...borderline psychosis A term used loosely to describe conditions in which there are symptoms suggestive of schizophrenia or other psychosis but not loss of contact with reality. Persons with this diagnosis should be carefully monitored because they often deteriorate and sometimes harm themselves and/or others. ...
puerperal psychosis Quick reference
Concise Medical Dictionary (10 ed.)
...psychosis a psychosis that is triggered by childbirth and usually arises in the first two weeks after giving birth. It affects 1 in 200 women; those suffering from bipolar affective disorder or schizophrenia or those who have a history of puerperal psychosis are at particularly high risk. The symptoms develop very rapidly and the patient needs to be hospitalized, ideally in a mother and baby psychiatric unit to avoid separation; most patients respond well to antipsychotic ...
Korsakoff psychosis Quick reference
A Dictionary of Public Health (2 ed.)
...Korsakoff psychosis A toxic encephalopathy usually caused by chronic alcoholism that leads to amnesia and a tendency to fabricate implausible anecdotes to fill the memory gaps. Named for the Russian neuropsychiatrist Sergei Korsakoff ( 1853–1900 ). ...
