[Symptomatology of inhibition]

This essentially descriptive paper deals with inhibition as a symptom or as a behavior pattern and studies the different areas of; inhibition of the intellect (i.e. a decrease in though production witnessed by disorders of language flow), reduced attention span (distractability, inability to concentrate), inhibition of volition (abulia, indecisiveness), memory inhibition (in the sense of selective amnesias, post-crisis amnesias, cyclical amnesias), restriction of the basic drives (which can touch the life principle, the need for sleep, hunger, sexual drive), emotional inhibition including a feeling of inferiority and self-doubt which affects interpersonal relations: in this sense inhibition can also manifest itself in experiences of estrangement and depersonalization. A dynamic study of inhibition should first deal with the presumed relationship between the symptom and a specific pathological process and analysis of the underlying inconscious mecanisms.