An episode of altered consciousness in which a person apparently purposefully wanders away from home or work and, in some cases, adopts a new identity.
When the fugue ends, the person has no recollection of what has occurred.
Fugues are uncommon, and causes include dissociative disorders, temporal lobe epilepsy, depression, head injury, and dementia.
(See also amnesia.)
The term literally means ?ight, and it is used to describe the mental condition in which an individual is suddenly seized with a subconscious motivation to ?ee from some intolerable reality of everyday existence: this usually involves some agonising interpersonal relationship. As a rule, fugue lasts for a matter of hours or days, but may go on for weeks or even months. During the fugue the individual seldom behaves in a particularly odd manner – though he or she may be considered somewhat eccentric. When it is over there is no remembrance of events during the fugue.
Three types of fugue have been identi?ed: (a) acute anxiety; (b) a manifestation of DEPRESSION; (c) a manifestation of organic mental state such as occurs after an epileptic seizure (see EPILEPSY).
n. a period of memory loss during which the patient leaves his or her usual surroundings and wanders aimlessly. It is often preceded by psychological conflict and associated with depression (see dissociative disorder), organic mental disease, or alcoholism.
A collection of psychological disorders in which a particular mental function becomes cut o? from a person’s mind. Hysterical AMNESIA is one example, when the person forgets his or her personal history but can still absorb and talk about new events. Other examples are FUGUE, depersonalisation (detachment from self and environment), and MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER.... dissociative disorder
The performance of acts without conscious will, as, for example, after an attack of epilepsy or concussion of the brain. In such conditions the person may perform acts of which he or she is neither conscious at the time nor has any memory afterwards. It is especially liable to occur when persons suffering from epilepsy, mental subnormality, or concussion consume alcoholic liquors. It may also occur following the taking of barbiturates or PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS. There are, however, other cases in which there are no such precipitatory factors. Thus it may occur following hypnosis, mental stress or strain, or conditions such as FUGUE or somnambulism (see SLEEP). The condition is of considerable importance from a legal point of view, because acts done in this state, and for which the person committing them is not responsible, may be of a criminal nature. According to English law, however, it entails complete loss of consciousness, and only then is it a defence to an action for negligence. A lesser impairment of consciousness is no defence.... automatism
n. total or partial loss of memory following physical injury, disease, drugs, or psychological trauma (see confabulation; fugue; repression). Anterograde amnesia is loss of memory for the events following a trauma; retrograde amnesia is loss of memory for events preceding the trauma. Some patients experience both types.... amnesia
n. (in psychiatry) the process whereby thoughts and ideas can be split off from consciousness and may function independently, thus (for example) allowing conflicting opinions to be held at the same time about the same object. Dissociation may be the main factor in cases of dissociative *fugue and multiple personalities.... dissociation
n. (pl. neuroses) any long-term mental or behavioural disorder in which contact with reality is retained and the condition is recognized by the sufferer as abnormal: the term and concept originated from Freud. A neurosis essentially features anxiety or behaviour exaggeratedly designed to avoid anxiety. Defence mechanisms against anxiety take various forms and may appear as phobias, obsessions, compulsions, or sexual dysfunctions. In recent classifications, the disorders formerly included under the neuroses have been renamed. The general term is now anxiety disorder; hysteria has become *conversion disorder; amnesia, fugue, and depersonalization are *dissociative disorders; obsessional neurosis is now known as *obsessive–compulsive disorder; and depressive neurosis has become *dysthymia. Psychoanalysis has proved of little value in curing these conditions; *behaviour therapy and *SSRIs are effective in many cases. —neurotic adj.... neurosis
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