The process of passing through different bodily forms in the course of an organism’sdevelopment. as in a frog or butterfly.

In PSYCHOANALYSIS, something that is not present in CONSCIOUSNESS at a given moment but which can readily be recalled. Compare with SUBCONSCIOUS.

Literally,’close distant’. Usually refers to the process of maturation in humans and animals where the sequence of physical development proceeds from the centre of the body towards the periphery. See CEPHALOCAUDAL.

The hierarchy of status relationships formed among farmyard hens by their process of pecking each other. The most pecked hen has the lowest status. The term is now routinely (and therefore dangerously) applied to status relationships in human groups. Similarly, the term ‘hen-pecked’ has long been part of everyday speech.

One of the three points on a FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION which divide it into equal quarters.

From the Greek words psyche (mind) and soma (body); relating to psychological disorders in which emotional STRESS produces physiological symptoms. Illnesses such as asthma and stomach ulcers are widely believed to be psychosomatic, but it has also been argued that because of the close connection between MIND and body, every illness is psychosomatic at least to some extent.

A physician who specialises in PSYCHIATRY.

Mainly used to describe recurrent criminal BEHAVIOUR but also used of repeated psychological disturbance.

In PSYCHOANALYSIS, the EGO’S modification of the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE that governs the ID. It is the ego’s way of striking a balance between what the id wants and what is possible, given the realities of the external environment.

A condition of serious mental retardation, thought to be hereditary, caused by the failure of the body to metabolise phenylalanine.