CATalepsy. — Extreme degree of volitional block with complete inability to engage in any activity, accompanied by a particular passive pliability of the muscles in various parts of the body ("waxy flexibility"), whereby the patient can be positioned by others in any posture of the head, trunk, or limbs, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable, and can maintain this position for a long time until it is altered or ceases spontaneously due to fatigue. During the cataleptic state, all organic activity (respiration, circulation, sensitivity) is weakened and dulled; memory of what occurred during this state is incomplete or absent.
In catalepsy, the patient can be induced to activity by imitation, automatically repeating the actions (echopraxia) or words (echolalia) of those around them, or under the influence of suggestion, as occurs in that state of suspension and near-emptying of psychological consciousness produced by hypnosis (v.), in which the patient can be led to enact feelings and actions instilled through oral or visual suggestion. Catalepsy is observed in hysteria (v.), epilepsy (v.), manic states, and particularly in early dementia. Catalepsy can be induced by the subject themselves, as in the "autocatalepsy" of Hindu fakirs (v. FACHIRISMO), or during metapsychic phenomena, sometimes assuming the appearance of a supernatural event.