Synonyms
Circumstantiality
Definition
A disturbance in the thought process, voluntary or involuntary, which causes one to relate an excessive amount of detail that is elaborate, marginally related, or irrelevant to the subject at hand. These digressions may be inappropriately oblique or loosely linked by semantic associations. Individuals are unable to engage in goal-directed thought or behavior and never seem to get to the point or to a desired goal. This speech pattern can be observed in persons experiencing high levels of anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar, obsessional disorders, and frontal lobe brain damage.
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Loftis, C. (2018). Tangentiality. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2127
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2127
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
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