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Thought processes: Derailment – speech vacillates from one subject to another. Flight of ideas – jumping around abruptly from topic to topic in a continuous flow of speech. Neologisms – words are distorted or invented. Blocking – speaking stops suddenly. Circumstantiality – unnecessary detail and irrelevant remarks delay the person from getting to the point. Perseveration – persistently repeating words and ideas. Confabulation – fabrication of facts or events to fill in gaps where memory loss has occurred. Clanging – choosing words based on sounds rather than meaning. Echolalia – repeating words or phrases that others say. Incoherence – speech is incomprehensible. Thought content: Obsessions – recurrent, uncontrollable thoughts, images or impulses that the individual considers unacceptable. Compulsions – repetitive behaviours that result from attempts to alleviate an obsession. Phobia – an irrational and disproportionate fear of objects or situations. Depersonalization – feeling that one has become detached from one’s mind or body or has lost one’s identity. Delusions – false, fixed beliefs that are not shared by others. Poverty of content – thoughts that give little information because of vagueness, empty repetition or obscure phrases. Perceptions: Illusions – misinterpretations of external stimuli. Hallucinations – auditory, visual, tactile, somatic or gustatory sensory perceptions when no external stimuli are present.