Category: A
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Anhedonia
The inability to experience pleasure from activities that usually produce pleasurable feelings, typically as a manifestation of depression. Contrast with hedonism. Inability to experience pleasure from activities that usually produce pleasurable feelings. Contrast with hedonism. In psychology, a psychophysiological condition characterized by the inability to experience joy. Absence of pleasure from ordinarily pleasurable acts. A…
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Angelman’s syndrome
A genetic disorder characterized by intellectual and developmental delay, seizures, jerky movements, ataxia, hyperactivity, skin and eye hypopigmentation, and unprovoked laughter. The syndrome is caused by a deletion of a segment of chromosome 15. Angelman syndrome, formerly known as happy puppet syndrome due to a resemblance of children with the disorder to the movement and…
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Angel dust
A street name for phencyclidine (PCP), a drug of abuse that produces brief dissociative psychotic reactions similar to those seen in schizophrenia.
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Androphobia
The fear of men.
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Androgyny
A combination of male and female characteristics in one person. The state of possessing traits that exhibit qualities of both masculinity and femininity, or lacking distinct identification as either male or female. The English term for this phenomenon is a fusion of two Greek words denoting ‘adult man’ and ‘woman.’ Androgyny can encompass various aspects…
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Androgen insensitivity syndrome
A condition that affects the development of reproductive and genital organs; it typically includes feminization or undermasculinization of the external genitalia at birth, abnormal secondary sexual development in puberty, and infertility. Feminization of the male sex organs because of cellular insensitivity to androgen in the prenatal environment.
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Ancillary care
Health services other than professional services or hospital room and board. These services may include pharmacy and laboratory services.
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Anankastic personality
Synonym for obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
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Analytic psychology
The name given by the Swiss psychonalyst Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) to his theoretical system, which minimizes the influences of sexual factors in emotional disorders and stresses mystical and religious influences and a belief in the collective unconscious. The name given by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung to his theoretical system, which minimizes the…
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Analysis
A common synonym for psychoanalysis. The process of resolving a problem into its component parts. An examination of a substance to find out what it is made of. Any means of understanding complex mental processes or experiences. There are several systems of analysis used by different schools of psychology; for example, psychoanalysis; transactional analysis, in…