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.
gustatory hallucination a hallucination involving taste.
habituation getting so accustomed to a stimulus that one may stop noticing it, as one who lives next door to a dog who barks all day.
hallucination a false perception; seeing, hearing, feeling, or smelling something that isn't there.
hallucinogen any substance or drug known to cause hallucinations.
hallucinosis symptoms of disordered perception— including auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations— occurring in people withdrawing from severe alcohol abuse.
halo effect the overbroad perception of someone who exhibits a positive trait as being good in other ways as well.
Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression a measure of the severity of one's depression, based on a multiple-choice questionnaire.
Hawthorne effect the tendency for people to act differently when they are being observed, which can potentially skew research results.
hebephrenia a rare form of schizophrenia characterized by regressive behavior and a constant silly grin.
hedonism the theory that humans seek pleasure and avoid pain and that happiness represents the greatest good.
histrionic personality a personality characterized by dramatic attention seeking, excitability, egocentric- ity, and overdependency.
hyperactivity a childhood disorder characterized by excessive activity and a failure to inhibit motion or complete tasks.
hypergamy the selection of a mate or spouse with higher status than oneself, as younger women pursuing older, wealthier, more powerful males, an evolutionary survival strategy.
hypermnesia the strikingly vivid and disturbing recall of a traumatic event, causing anxiety, depression, and intrusive memories and thoughts, the opposite of amnesia.
hyperphagia pathological overeating.
hypersomnia excessive sleepiness.
hyperventilation a common reaction to anxiety, rapid breathing that reduces carbon dioxide in the blood, causing light-headedness, incoordination, palpitations, and a sensation of needing more air—generally resolved by breathing into a paper bag.
hypervigilance a state of heightened arousal and anxiety in which the sufferer sharply monitors his environment for signs of danger and often has an intense startle response, a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.
hypnagogic designating the mental state that occurs just before falling into sleep, known to cause hallucinations, which are considered normal.
hypnopompic designating the mental state that immediately follows the first stage of waking and which can sometimes produce hallucinations.
hypnotherapy therapy conducted with the patient under hypnosis.
hypnotic trance a dreamlike state of increased suggestibility.
hypoactive sexual desire disorder the lack of desire or sexual fantasies, with no evidence of a physical cause such as low testosterone, thought to be due to sexual trauma in childhood.