Descriptionary

extinction the fading and ultimate extinguishing of a behavior or thought process that maintained a pho­bia or other emotional dysfunction.

extroversion a personality trait characterized by an outward focus rather than an introspective one, marked by outgoing social behavior or great enjoy­ment in the company of others.

Eye Movement Desensitation and Reprocessing (EMDR) a therapeutic technique in which the eyes are intentionally moved rapidly back and forth while a past trauma is discussed and processed, resulting in diminished depression and anxiety.

factitious disorder a rare behavioral disorder in which one feigns illness by creating symptoms, for example by striking oneself to create bruises, or inject­ing fluid into a limb to simulate a tumor.

false memory see confabulation.

fetishism a sexual deviation characterized by an attraction to inanimate objects, such as shoes, or to things like hands and feet, instead of to people.

fight-or-flight response a mental and physical alarm stage that releases adrenaline and other hormones into the bloodstream to prepare the body for fighting of fleeing.

file drawer effect the tendency of some research scientists to downplay, hide, or fail to publish study results that are negative or contrary to what they are looking for.

fixation the failure to complete the maturation pro­cess in a particular stage of development.

flattened affect an absence of emotional expres­sion, particularly in one suffering from depression or mental illness.

flight of ideas accelerated speech, with rapid leap­ing from topic to topic, a symptom of mania.

flooding exposing a phobic person to his or her feared object or thing, in order to get the person over it.

folie a deux madness shared by two, a delusion suf­fered by two people simultaneously, as when a strong person in a household transmits his faulty belief onto his housemate.

folie a plusieurs madness of many, any delusion held by several people simultaneously.

formication a hallucination in which bugs are thought to be crawling all over one's body or under one's skin.

free association the psychoanalytic method of revealing the unconscious by asking a patient to say whatever word pops into his mind first in response to a stimulus word.

free-floating anxiety vague feelings of fear or anxi­ety without any observable cause or source.

Fregoli's syndrome a delusion in which the sufferer believes that different people are really just one per­son who is really good at donning disguises, named after Italian actor Leopoldo Fregoli, who was known on the stage as a quick-change artist.

Freudian slip an inadvertent utterance that reveals the speaker's true or unconscious feelings; a slip of the tongue.

frontal lobe syndrome a spectrum of symptoms or behaviors that suggest the possibility of brain dam­age in the frontal lobe. The most notable symptoms include a short attention span coupled with tactless, insensitive, impulsive, and sexually inappropriate behavior, along with indifference toward any negative consequences for one's actions. Sufferers of the syn­drome have difficulty staying employed due to their offensive behavior and in fact often end up in jail. A high percentage of murderers have been found to have frontal lobe damage, most often caused by head trauma, brain tumor, or infections.

frustration-aggression theory a theory that holds that aggression occurs in response to frustration.

fugue state a dissociative reaction to anxiety in which a person runs away and has no memory of his actions over a period of time.

GAD see generalized anxiety disorder.

galvanic skin response changes in the electrical conductivity of skin as detected by a galvanometer; used as an emotional indicator.

gender dysphoria a distaste or revulsion for the behavioral or physical characteristics of one's own sex.

generalized anxiety disorder a disorder character­ized by frequent, free-floating anxiety, which may or may not have an identifiable cause.

Gestalt therapy group therapy featuring one person in the "hot seat" to role-play, explore feelings, fanta­sies, dreams, and so forth.

glossolalia speaking in tongues.

grandiose delusion overblown feelings of self- worth and importance, rising to the level of delu­sional thinking.

grandiosity overblown feelings of self-worth, attrac­tiveness, and power, which in extreme cases may be considered delusional.

groupthink cultlike behavior in which peer pressure forces members of a group to think or act alike, even when it may be irrational, erroneous, unproductive, or dangerous.