Confusion

Confusion, a broad term for designating psychopathological states in which the internal connection between representations is weakened and disrupted, and consequently the patient's orientation in place and time is impaired. The manner of onset of confusion varies greatly. In acute, so-called amentive confusion (see Amentia), individual perceptions are poorly processed, incorrectly formed into sequences, and interwoven with fragments of internal experiences due to weakened brain function on the basis of intoxication, infection. In some cases, even the simplest perceptions are difficult to process, and the patient has difficulty naming the simplest objects, does not understand the simplest questions, so that this condition resembles aphasia or paraphasia (pseudoaphasic confusion). In oneiroid states (see), confusion occurs due to the interweaving of impressions of reality with dream-like fantastic pictures. In delirious states (see Delusion), the cause of confusion is the influx of hallucinations. In a manic state, confusion is caused by the rapid emergence of numerous, weakly connected new thought sequences (whirlwind of ideas), with rapidly arising images of imagination, which create here 'combinatorial confusion'. Finally, confusion is caused by various types of clouding of consciousness - in stupor and twilight state (see also Consciousness, pathology).