echolalia

n. mechanical repetition of words and phrases uttered by another individual. It is often a symptom of a neurological or developmental disorder, particularly catatonic schizophrenia or autism. Also called echophrasia.

Browse dictionary by letter

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Psychology term of the day

May 7th 2024

Feighner criteria

a set of formal diagnostic descriptions published in 1972 for 15 mental disorders. Developed to improve reliability in psychiatric diagnosis by standardizing the definition of specific disorders, the Feighner criteria were the first symptom-based diagnostic system to be used in psychiatric research and signaled a major shift away from the then-dominant psychoanalytic approach to mental illness. They became widely cited and used in research and played an influential role in the revival of biological thinking in U.S. psychiatry. See Research Diagnostic Criteria. [developed by a team of researchers led by U.S. psychiatrist John P. Feighner (1937– ) at Washington University, St. Louis]