, are very common among nervous children, and even in many
otherwise normal grown-ups.
_Distractibility_ is an abnormal variation of attention.
The common inability of the hypomanic patient to hold his attention to
any subject when another is open, is very like the distractibility of
the child who turns to every new interest as it is presented.
_Negativism_ is a state of persistent compulsion to contrary response to
suggestion.
It is with these patients as though not only initiative were lost but
also the power to follow another's lead. But their independence asserts
itself in opposing every suggestion and in acting so far as possible
contrary to it.
_Mutism_, as used in psychiatry, is an abnormal inhibition to speech.
Patients sometimes speak no word in many months. To all appearance they
are true mutes. Then suddenly something may remove the mental blockade
and they talk.
_Compulsive acts_ are acts contrary to reason, which the will cannot
prevent.
A seemingly quite normal patient will sometimes grab a vase from a stand
in passing, and dash it to the floor.
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