Delays

Delays (MXH4ECKHE(Sperrungen)), characterized by sudden stopping for a short period of the processes of attention and movement (particularly expressive ones, such as speech, facial expressions, gestures); often observed in schizophrenics (according to K. Jaspers' definition, a delay is an interruption in the ability to register impressions and react to them). Patients suddenly stop responding, freeze in an immobile position with a fixed gaze, and seem to understand nothing, although consciousness and the ability to perceive impressions usually remain preserved. Most often, after several seconds or minutes, the delay ceases, only to reappear shortly after. From catatonic stupor, states of delay differ only in their brevity; from the inhibition of depressive patients, they differ in the mechanism of action: if inhibition can be compared to movement slowed down due to the necessity of overcoming constant and uniform resistance, then delay is characterized by multiple episodic stops of movement that is in no way slowed down in tempo (on the pathological physiology of delays—see Stupor).