Fourth Edition, September 2011

Flashback 
A recurrence of a memory, feeling, or perceptual ex-
perience from the past. 
Flat aff ect 
An aff ect type that indicates the absence of signs of af-
fective expression. 
Flight of ideas 
A nearly continuous fl ow of accelerated speech with 
abrupt changes from topic to topic that are usually 
based on understandable associations, distracting 
stimuli, or plays on words. When severe, speech may 
be disorganized and incoherent.
Grandiose delusion 
A delusion of infl ated worth, power, knowledge, iden-
tity, or special relationship to a deity or famous person.
Grandiosity 
An infl ated appraisal of one’s worth, power, know-
ledge, importance, or identity. When extreme, grandi-
osity may be of delusional proportions.

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Making a Diff erence: An Educators’ Guide to Child and Youth Mental Health Problems
www.cymhin.ca
3 . 6
Glossary of terms and abbreviations
Hallucination
A sensory perception that has the compelling sense of re-
ality of a true perception but that occurs without external 
stimulation of the relevant sensory organ. Hallucinations 
should be distinguished from illusions, in which an actual 
external stimulus is misperceived or misinterpreted. The 
person may or may not have insight into the fact that he 
or she is having a hallucination. One person with auditory 
hallucinations may recognize that he or she is having a 
false sensory experience, whereas another may be con-
vinced that the source of the sensory experience has an 
independent physical reality. Transient hallucinatory ex-
periences may occur in people without a mental disorder.
Inappropriate aff ect 
An aff ect type that represents an unusual aff ective ex-
pression that does not match with the content of what 
is being said or thought.
Incoherence
Speech or thinking that is essentially incomprehensible to 
others because words or phrases are joined together with-
out a logical or meaningful connection. This disturbance 
occurs within clauses, in contrast to derailment, in which 
the disturbance is between clauses. This has sometimes 
been referred to as “word salad” to convey the degree 
of linguistic disorganization. Mildly ungrammatical con-
structions or idiomatic usages characteristic of particular 
regional or cultural backgrounds, lack of education, or low 
intelligence should not be considered incoherence.