Category: D

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…

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.  

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.  

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.  

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;…

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).  

Major depressive episode with delusions or hallucinations whose content may be consistent with the depressive themes of inadequacy, guilt, disease, or death. Features such as persecutory delusions, thought insertion, thought broadcasting, and delusions of control may be present.  

One of the dissociative disorders, characterized by persistent or recurrent feelings of being detached from one’s body or mental processes. The affected person often describes a sense of being an automaton or an outside observer of him- or herself. DSM-III-R term for depersonalization neurosis. A dissociative disorder in which the person feels unreal and estranged…

Feelings of unreality or strangeness concerning the environment, the self, or both. This state is characteristic of depersonalization disorder but also may occur in schizotypal personality disorder, in schizophrenia, and in persons experiencing overwhelming anxiety, stress, or fatigue. The loss of the sense of personal identity, often with a feeling of being something or someone…