__NOTOC__ In

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial p ...

, derailment (also loosening of association, asyndesis, asyndetic thinking, knight's move thinking, or entgleisen) is a

thought disorder A thought disorder (TD) is any disturbance in cognition that adversely affects language and thought content, and thereby communication. A variety of thought disorders were said to be characteristic of people with schizophrenia. A content-though ...

characterized by

discourse Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. ...

consisting of a sequence of unrelated or only remotely related

idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of bei ...

s. The frame of reference often changes from one sentence to the next.P.J. McKenna, ''Schizophrenia and related syndromes'', Psychology Press, 1997, , pp. 14-15A.C.P. Sims, ''Symptoms in the mind: an introduction to descriptive psychopathology'', Edition 3, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2003, , pp. 155-156 In a mild manifestation, this thought disorder is characterized by slippage of ideas further and further from the point of a discussion. Derailment can often be manifestly caused by intense emotions such as euphoria or hysteria. Some of the synonyms given above (''loosening of association'', '' asyndetic thinking'') are used by some authors to refer just to a ''loss of goal'': discourse that sets off on a particular idea, wanders off and never returns to it. A related term is

tangentiality Tangential speech or tangentiality is a communication disorder in which the train of thought of the speaker wanders and shows a lack of focus, never returning to the initial topic of the conversation.''Forensic Aspects of Communication Sciences an ...

—it refers to off-the-point, oblique or irrelevant answers given to questions. In some studies on

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed lit ...

, ''knight's move thinking''—while describing a similarly loose association of ideas—is not considered a

mental disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

or the hallmark of one; it is sometimes used as a synonym for lateral thinking.

Examples

* "The next day when I'd be going out you know, I took control, like uh, I put bleach on my hair in California."—given by Nancy C. Andreasen * "I think someone's infiltrated my copies of the cases. We've got to case the joint. I don't believe in joints, but they do hold your body together."—given by

Elyn Saks Elyn R. Saks is associate dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School, an expert in mental health law, and a MacArthur Foundation Fell ...

.Elyn Saks: "A tale of mental illness — from the inside." TEDGlobal 2012. Recorded in June 2012. * "I have choose right over wrong. When there are two options, I have to look to the right. I can choose left or right, but always look right."—patient interview, Mayo Clinic.

History

''Entgleisen'' ( derailment in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

) was first used with this meaning by

Carl Schneider Carl Schneider (December 19, 1891 in Gembitz, Kreis Mogilno, Province of Posen – December 11, 1946 in Frankfurt), professor at Heidelberg University, (1933–1945) chairman of its department of Psychiatry, director of its clinic, was a senior ...

in 1930. The term ''asyndesis'' was introduced by N. Cameron in 1938, while ''loosening of association'' was introduced by A. Bleuler in 1950.Tony Thompson, Peter Mathias, Jack Lyttle, ''Lyttle's mental health and disorder'', Edition 3, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2000, , pp. 136, 168-170 The phrase ''knight's move thinking'' was first used in the context of pathological thinking by the psychologist Peter McKellar in 1957, who hypothesized that individuals with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social w ...

fail to suppress divergent associations.Robert Spillane, John Martin, ''Personality and performance: foundations for managerial psychology'', UNSW Press, 2005 , pp. 239-243 ''Derailment'' was used with this meaning by

Kurt Schneider Kurt Schneider (7 January 1887 – 27 October 1967) was a German psychiatrist known largely for his writing on the diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia, as well as personality disorders then known as psychopathic personalities. Bi ...

in 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Derailment Cognition Medical signs Thought disorders

Examples

History

See also

References