The practice of ‘mercy killing’, terminating a pain-filled life with a painless death,

In the PHILOSOPHY of MIND, an event that accompanies another event without having any causal relationship to it.

The Greek god of love, used by FREUD to symbolise the libido or self-preserving DRIVE for life.

Contrasted with THANATOS.

According to JUNG, a basic PERSONALITY dimension of openness and outward-looking sociability that is usually contrasted with INTROVERSION.

A basic technique of PSYCHOANALYSIS where the FREE ASSOCIATION of the patient to the various elements of his DREAMS is employed in an attempt to understand their hidden meaning. FREUD regarded dreams as ‘the royal road to the unconscious’, and as no activity of the UNCONSCIOUS is random or meaningless, the symbolism to be found in a dream represented an important clue to the patient’s underlying MOTIVATION.

See also LATENT CONTENT and MANIFEST CONTENT.

A sensory MEMORY that lasts for a second or two following an auditory stimulus. The auditor equivalent of an ICONIC STORE.

The view that contradictory messages or conflicting demands can induce severe STRESS and even SCHIZOPHRENIA in an individual. Used especially of a DEPENDENT relationship such as that between child and parent where the child can neither resolve nor escape the psychological dilemmas of the situation.

See also EXPERIMENTAL NEUROSIS.

Literally, the ‘I’, the CONSCIOUS AWARENESS of oneself (one’s SELF). According to FREUD the ego is that part of the PERSONALITY closest to external reality which holds the ring between the UNCONSCIOUS DRIVES of the pleasure seeking ID on the one hand and the internalised restrictions of the SUPEREGO on the other. NEUROSIS, in Freud’s view, is thus the result of the ego being unable to maintain harmonious relations with the id and superego because the power of their unconscious drives is too much for it to cope with.

An impairment of word PERCEPTION involving a loss of ability to read or understand words. Contrast with ALEXIA.

In PSYCHOANALYSIS, the form in which a repressed wish appears in a DREAM.