circumstantiality /cir·cum·stan·ti·al·i·ty/ (serk″um-stan″she-al´it-e) a disturbed pattern of speech or writing characterized by delay in getting to the point because of the interpolation of unnecessary details and irrelevant parenthetical remarks.
circumstantiality
circumstantiality [ser″kum-stan″she-al´ĭ-te]
cir·cum·stan·ti·al·i·ty (sûr k m-st nsh -l  -t)n. A disturbance in the thought process by detail that is often tangential and irrelevant. |
circumstantiality
[-stan′shē·al′itē]
Etymology: L, circum + stare, to stand
(in psychiatry) a speech pattern in which a patient has difficulty in separating relevant from irrelevant information while describing an event. The patient often includes all details and presents them in a sequential order, with the result that the main thread of thought becomes lost as one association leads to another. Frequently the person may need to have questions repeated because the main point of answers has become lost in the confusion of unnecessary detail. Compare flight of ideas.
circumstantiality [ser″kum-stan″she-al´ĭ-te]
a disturbed pattern of speech or writing characterized by delay in getting to the point because of the interpolation of unnecessary details and irrelevant remarks; seen in persons with schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorders. See also tangentiality.
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