We often think of a talkative person in this way; "But he has wordiness. Nothing can be said." But are we sure we are using the word correctly? Do we know what, in fact, this medical term means? The condition under the name of verbotenism (from the Greek logorea - "lógos" word, speech + "rhoá" river, flow) is a good example of how specialised medical language tries to assimilate into everyday language.
Table of contents:
- "Vocabulary" in colloquial language
- "Vocabulary" in medical terms
- In which neurological diseases do we observe wordiness?
- In which psychiatric diseases do we observe vocabulary?
- Summary
The question is how such assimilation takes place and whether the word has the same meaning in both environments. If it does not, which often happens, it means that in the new environment into which it is incorporated, it starts to be used in the wrong one. Unfortunately, more and more words originally coming from psychiatric nomenclature are making their way into everyday language. And there would be nothing wrong with this if such words were used correctly, but usually, unfortunately, they acquire new meanings or are used as words considered offensive. An example of such a term is 'schizophrenia'. In medicine, it denotes a severe mental illness in which there is a disintegration of personality, auditory hallucinations, delusions, and disorders of social intercourse. In colloquial language, 'schizophrenic' is 'a person with a split ego', 'crazy', 'abnormal', and certainly someone with whom it is better not to get involved. As can be seen from the above example, the name of a severe illness is used as a derogatory term, possibly as a warning. Such a process greatly stigmatises those who are genuinely ill. This is because, by definition, they are considered 'mental', 'abnormal' and so on. And the stigmatisation process excludes them from society. It is worth thinking about this the next time we repeat a word we do not fully understand.
"Vocabulary" in everyday language
A word used in the context of a person who has an unusually large amount to say on any subject. He or she does not listen to his or her interlocutor, but focuses on saying as many words as possible in a unit of time. In colloquial language, the term 'has verbosity' is used as a synonym to the phrase 'is talkative'.
"Vocabulary" in medical terms
In specialised medical language, verbosity is always a symptom of a mental or neurological illness .
In psychiatry, we can say, speech is the audible manifestation of thoughts. And we cannot hear them in another person, but we can infer the characteristics of his thought processes from his speech. A flurry of thoughts, a rush of thoughts will be expressed in the form of verbosity, i.e. rapid, disorderly speech. Often in the form of repetition of syllables, sounds, single words. The following sentences are incoherent, illogical, without cause and effect relationship.
In turn, a head void, a slowing down of the train of thought will be "heard" in the form of slow, interrupted speech, and in particularly severe cases, mutism, i.e. a complete lack of speech, may occur. In psychopathology (the "language of psychiatry" in which all symptoms of mental disorders are named and described), verbosity belongs to the group of disorders of thought form. In this group, the style and form of speech are destroyed, while we speak of disorders of the content of thought when the patient utters delusional beliefs, i.e. untrue judgements about reality, about the truth of which he is absolutely certain.
Vocabulary, photo: panthermedia
As can be seen from the 'definitions' quoted above, wordiness in the colloquial and medical sense differs significantly. Let us keep this in mind when using the term on a daily basis.
In which neurological diseases do we observe wordiness?
In neurology, a disorder in the form of wordiness most frequently occurs when there is damage to the cortical sensory speech centre (Wernicke's centre). This develops the characteristic picture of sensory aphasia (sensory speech disorder), where the patient does not understand his own speech and that of others, although he has no major problems articulating words. Instead, his speech is agrammatic, jargonised, full of neologisms and often takes the form of wordiness.
The disorder, in the form of sensory aphasia, usually occurs as a result of an ischaemic stroke located in the left cerebral hemisphere. The cortical centres associated with speech are located in the left hemisphere, so damage to this hemisphere can cause speech disorders. In order for Wernicke's cortical speech sensory centre, located in the posterior part of the left temporal lobe, to be damaged, the ischaemia must take place in the field supplied by the left middle cerebral artery (a direct branch of the internal carotid artery).
In which psychiatric diseases is verboten observed?
1) Manic state
Wordiness is part of the characteristic picture of manic affective disorders. A person in mania is in an elevated or irritable mood, psychomotor agitation. It is characterised by formal thinking disorders - racing thoughts, talkativeness, verbosity. There is often a reduced need for sleep, sexual disinhibition and disturbances in the content of thinking - most often grandiose and persecutory delusions. Importantly, the sufferer usually has no insight into his or her condition. In other words, she is unaware of her illness.
2) Catatonic schizophrenia
Vocalization is a characteristic feature of a rather rare form of schizophrenia - catatonic schizophrenia. This type of schizophrenia causes disturbances mainly in the motor and movement spheres. It can present in two subtypes: hypokinetic (significant slowing of motor skills) or hyperkinetic (increased motor skills). For the latter subtype, in addition to psychomotor agitation, rapid, aimless marching, gibberish, difficult-to-understand speech with a picture of wordiness is also characteristic. This type of schizophrenia can be confused, especially in the early stages, with a manic state, hence the need for appropriate differential diagnosis.
Vocabulary, photo: panthermedia
Summary
So we can see that the cause of wordiness can be a very serious medical condition. Sensory aphasia, which is most often the result of an ischaemic stroke of the left cerebral hemisphere, manic states, or catatonic schizophrenia are all serious illnesses that require specialised care and very precise treatment. Out of respect for people who actually struggle with this illness, let's not use the term "has verboten" to insult someone or bluntly describe their verbosity.
