puerilism

English

Etymology

puerile +‎ -ism

Noun

puerilism (usually uncountable, plural puerilisms)

  1. (psychology, psychiatry) Childlike behavior by an adult, especially as indicating a mental disorder.
    • 1932, Aubrey Lewis, "The Experience of Time in Mental Disorder," reprinted in Inquiries in Psychiatry (Routledge, 2013), →ISBN, p. 14 (Google preview):
      With regard to hysteria; in dissociation there may be a secondary time disorder; for example a patient with puerilism said: "People all seem grown up and older. And my Mum, I'm sure I know her from a long time ago. I look at her, but I can't make it out."
    • 1962, Walter Laqueur, Young Germany: A History of the German Youth Movement, →ISBN, p. xi (Google preview):
      [T]he Dutchman Johan Huizenga, who coined the term puerilism in the 1930s . . . defined it as permanent puberty.
    • 2004, John Lukacs, A New Republic: A History of the United States in the Twentieth Century, →ISBN, p. 286 (Google preview):
      A kind of puerilism marked many American attitudes — an unnaturally extended puerilism which tended to transmute itself into senility alarmingly and swiftly.

See also

References
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