Bálint’s syndrome

a spatial and attentional disorder resulting from bilateral lesions in the parieto-occipital regions of the brain. It consists of inability to visually guide the hand to an object (optic ataxia), inability to change visual gaze (oculomotor apraxia), and inability to recognize multiple stimuli in a scene and understand their nature as a whole (simultanagnosia; see visual agnosia). [first described in 1909 by Rudolf Bálint (1874–1929), Hungarian physician]

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Psychology term of the day

February 20th 2025

principle of constancy

in classical psychoanalytic theory, the idea that all mental processes tend toward a state of equilibrium and the stability of the inorganic state. Also called constancy law; law of constancy. See also death instinct; nirvana principle.