psychosis
/sʌɪˈkəʊsɪs
/noun (plural psychoses /sʌɪˈkəʊsiːz/)
A severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality: they were suffering from a psychosis [mass noun]: the symptoms of psychosis...
- Most paranoid psychoses are chronic rather than episodic, but Schreber had an initial mental illness lasting from October 1884 to June 1885 from which he made a good recovery.
- Thus the significant differences between LSD and schizophrenic psychoses appear to be in the affective nature of LSD psychosis and the greater incidence of delusions and auditory hallucinations in schizophrenics.
- Only serious psychoses that required psychiatric consultation and/or treatment were considered as mental disturbances.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Greek psukhōsis 'animation', from psukhoō 'I give life to', from psukhē 'soul, mind'.