flight of ideas

American  

noun

Psychiatry.

1. a rapid flow of thought, manifested by accelerated speech with abrupt changes from topic to topic: a symptom of some mental illnesses, especially manic disorder.

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Example Sentences

By a natural flight of ideas, the loathing of the city turned to loathing of himself—to an unsatiable desire for self-forgetfulness, for self-effacement.

From Max by Thurston, Katherine Cecil

In the so-called "flight of ideas" words succeed each other with incredible rapidity, without goal idea, but each word suggesting the next by sound or other association, thus: "Are you blue?"

From Why Worry? by Walton, George Lincoln

The report from there stated that she was for ten days "elated, excited, talkative, with flight of ideas."

From Benign Stupors A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type by MacCurdy, John T. (John Thompson)

A flight of ideas is an abnormal rapidity of the stream of thought.

From Applied Psychology for Nurses by Porter, Mary F.

By means of distinctions we ought to struggle against this flowing away and flight of ideas.

From The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps by Binet, Alfred