The Awkward Psych Laugh
Shoutout question to my Psychiatry bloggers Shrinkette and Maria (okay, my dad too):
Is there a name for the laugh that one makes when talking about a patient who it just totally psychotic or manic or out there? Because if there’s isn’t, there should be. I propose the “slaugh” (that’s sad because the patient is so sick + laugh) or the “DeMlaugh” (short for Defense Mechanism + laugh). I’ll use it in a sentence:
My resident showed me a picture a patient drew of her, labeled “Space Devil.” The Space Devil’s body was a playing card, featuring a heart, diamond, clover, and lightning bolt, featured the words “smoke” and “sex” around the waste, and had a long, blue-highlighter-colored tube (a colon?) pooping out Zodiac signs. It was so bizarre, my only possible reaction was to slaugh.
Hm… neologisms. ;) I personally just try to describe my internal reactions with usual words (and hence can sound all shrinky n’ crap) because I already get enough weird looks as it is. ;) (So is it “slaff” or “sloff”?)
Ask Jackie Anderson at “Point and Shoot” (link at my blog). She thinks HER dreams are weird!
best,
Flea
How about also coining “Scry” for how sad it is that some people in this world are totally detached from reality and cannot even conceive of how bizarre their thinking is. ie- that patient was so far gone that it made me scry.
Perhaps it’s related to the “contaminated smile”…
http://www.mouthmag.com/issues/58/contam_smile.htm