| |
fugue
(fūg)
a pathological state of altered consciousness in which an individual may act and wander around as though conscious but have behavior not directed by the complete normal
personality and not remembered after the fugue ends.
dissociative fugue
, psychogenic fugue
a dissociative disorder characterized by an episode in which an individual forgets his past, assumes a partial or complete new identity, and travels
away from home or work, in some cases taking up a new name, occupation, and lifestyle. During the fugue, patients are unaware
that they have forgotten anything and seem to other people to be behaving normally; following recovery, they recall nothing
that happened during the fugue. The disorder is usually related to emotional conflicts due to some traumatic, stressful, or
overwhelming event, remits spontaneously, and rarely recurs.

Copyright 2007. An Elsevier publication. All rights reserved.
Click here for important legal information about Dorland's Medical Dictionary.
|