loosening of associations

American  

noun

Psychiatry.

1. a type of formal thought disorder characterized by shifts from one topic to another in ways that are obliquely related or completely unrelated, occurring as a common symptom of mania and schizophrenia.

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Example Sentences

“His verbalizations at that time were noted to be tangential with a loosening of associations,” wrote psychologist Elizabeth Teegarden during a court-mandated psychological review.

From Washington Post

The problem is often described as a “loosening of associations” in which, for example, words are chosen not because they make sense, but because the patient simply associates them with other words.

From Nature