Glossary

Category: F

  • Frontal

    A plane, vertical to the median line that divides the body into anterior and posterior parts. Pertaining to the region of the forehead. Referring to the forehead or to the front of the head. In anatomy, pert, to or located in the front; anterior. This term pertains to the anterior part of an organ, such…

  • Fixator

    Fixator

    A muscle acting to immobilize a joint or bone; fixes the origin of prime movers so muscle action occurring is exerted at the insertion. A metal rod placed through a bone to keep a part of the body rigid.  

  • Fasciculi

    Bundles of nerve, muscle, or tendon fibers, separated by connective tissue.  

  • Fugue

    Personality dissociation characterized by amnesia and involving actual physical flight from the customary environment or field of conflict. A memory loss characterized by an actual physical departure from the stress-producing situation. The person may wander aimlessly and may manifest symptoms of amnesia. A condition in which someone loses his or her memory and leaves home.…

  • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

    Founder of psycho- analysis. Most of the basic concepts of dynamic psychiatry are derived from his theories. Pioneer in the development of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Freud was born in what is now Pribor in the Czech Republic. He entered the University of Vienna in 1873 as a medical student, with growing interests in science and…

  • Freud, Anna (1895-1982)

    Austrian psychoanalyst and daughter of Sigmund Freud, noted for her contributions to the developmental theory of psychoanalysis and its applications to preventive work with children.  

  • For-profit hospitals

    Hospitals owned and/or operated by physicians, other individuals, or a business corporation for the purpose of making a profit. Also called proprietary hospitals or investor-owned hospitals.  

  • Follow-up examination

    Repeated clinical assessment following discharge after inpatient or outpatient treatment.  

  • Folic a deux

    A condition in which two closely related persons, usually in the same family, share the same delusions. In DSM-III-R called induced psychotic disorder in recognition of the well known clinical fact that not all such instances involve shared delusions; they can also be manic, depressive, etc.  

  • Flagellation

    A masochistic or sadistic act in which one or both participants derive stimulation, usually erotic, from whipping or being whipped. Action of whipping someone else or of being whipped for stimulation or sexual arousal. The act of whipping oneself or others as a means of obtaining sexual pleasure. A person displaying this sexual deviation is…