Glossary

Author: Glossary

  • Dermatillomania

    A disorder (classified as an impulse-control disorder not otherwise specified [nos] in dsm-iv-tr) in which the patient inflicts excessive scratching, picking, and squeezing on healthy skin. May be a symptom of a variety of psychiatric disorders, including stereotypic movement disorder, body dysmorphic disorder (bdd), and tourette’s disorder. Many patients with dermatillomania have a comorbid mood,…

  • Dereistic

    Referring to mental activity that is not in accordance with reality, logic, or experience. Thinking in which the person ignores reality and logical organization. A term often applied to irrational schizophrenia fantasies.    

  • Derealization

    A feeling of estrangement or detachment from one’s environment. May be accompanied by depersonalization. Loss of the sense that surroundings are real. It is present in several psychological disorders, e.g., panic disorder, depersonalization, and schizophrenia. The perception that the environment is unreal. The individual feels separated from the surroundings, as if he or she were…

  • Depth psychology

    An inexact term referring to the psychology of unconscious mental processes. Also a system of psychology in which the study of such processes plays a major role, as in psychoanalysis. The psychology of unconscious behavior, as opposed to the psychology of conscious behavior.  

  • Depressive position

    A term applied by Melanie Klein (1882–1960) and her followers to the stage of development that peaks about the sixth month of life. The infant begins to FEAR destroying and losing the beloved object and wants to appease it and preserve it.  

  • Depressive personality disorder

    Depressive personality disorder

    A proposed disorder (listed in dsm-iv-tr appendix b, “criteria sets and axes provided for further study”) consisting of a persistent, enduring characteristic mood tone that is gloomy, cheerless, unhappy, or dejected. The person’s self-concepts include persistent beliefs of inadequacy, worthlessness, and low self-esteem. Attitudes toward others are negative, critical, and judgmental. The person is brooding,…

  • Depressive disorder not otherwise specified (NOS)

    Includes disorders with depressive features that do not meet criteria for major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, or adjustment disorder with depressed mood (or with mixed anxiety and depressed mood) or depressive symptoms about which there is inadequate or contradictory information.  

  • Dysthymic disorder

    Is characterized by a chronic course of at least 2 years’ duration (i.e., seldom without symptoms) with depressive mood and a range of other symptoms that may include feelings of inadequacy, loss of self-esteem, or self-deprecation; feelings of hopelessness or despair; feelings of guilt, brooding about past events, or self-pity; low energy and chronic tiredness;…

  • Major depressive disorder

    (In other classificatory systems called major depression; depressed manic-depressive disorder) occurs in a person who has never had an episode of mania and is characterized by significant lowering of the mood and loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities, plus a range of other symptoms that may include significant weight or appetite changes, insomnis…

  • Depressive disorders

    In dsm-iv-tr, a group of mood disorders that includes major depressive disorder (single episode or recurrent), dysthymic disorder, and depressive disorder not otherwise specified (NOS).