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

See ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPH.

Literally, the loss of INTEGRATION or organisation of something whose parts usually fit together harmoniously. In PSYCHOLOGY, it is used most often about PERSONALITY, whose thinking, feeling and acting components can disintegrate under the STRESS of severe psychological disturbance.

See also PSYCHOSIS.

A MANIA that takes the form of a periodic craving for alcohol. Unlike chronic alcoholism the patient is not DEPENDENT on a daily intake of alcohol and his bouts of drinking are thought to be symptomatic of a deep-lying emotional disorder.

Sometimes used in SOCIOLOGY to indicate BEHAVIOUR designed to mask real feelings by presenting what appears to be a different feeling.

American term for LEVELS OF PROCESSING.

A PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUE in which young children are asked to draw a person as a test of intellectual ability or mental retardation. It is also used in research on the SELF-CONCEPT.

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.

A term sometimes used in SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY to indicate how effective a person feels in influencing matters of importance to her.

A technique, used mainly in treating severe DEPRESSION, of producing behavioural changes by passing an electrical current briefly through a patient’s brain. The technique causes muscular convulsions and renders the patient unconscious. It is claimed that the patient’s depression can often be eased in this way but nobody knows why, nor whether there are any permanent long-term side effects. Nowadays the patient is usually given a sedative and a muscle-relaxing drug before ECT to reduce the dangers of physical damage occurring. Commonly known as ‘shock treatment’ and considered barbaric by many psychologists.