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automatism
[ aw-tom-uh-tiz-uhm ]
noun
- the action or condition of being automatic; mechanical or involuntary action.
- Philosophy. the doctrine that all activities of animals, or of humans and animals, are entirely controlled by physical or physiological causes in which consciousness takes no part.
- Physiology. the involuntary functioning of an organic process, especially muscular, without apparent neural stimulation.
- Psychology.
- the performance of an act or actions without the performer's awareness or conscious volition.
- such an act, as sleepwalking.
- a method of producing pictorial art, as paintings and collages, associated chiefly with the dadaists and surrealists, in which the artist strives to allow the impulses of the unconscious to guide the hand in matters of line, color, and structure without the interference of conscious choice.
automatism
/ ɔːˈɒəˌɪə /
noun
- the state or quality of being automatic; mechanical or involuntary action
- law philosophy the explanation of an action, or of action in general, as determined by the physiological states of the individual, admissible in law as a defence when the physiological state is involuntary, as in sleepwalking
- psychol the performance of actions, such as sleepwalking, without conscious knowledge or control
- the suspension of consciousness sought or achieved by certain artists and writers to allow free flow of uncensored thoughts
Derived Forms
- ˈٴdzپ, noun
Other Word Forms
- ·ٴdza·پ noun adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of automatism1
Example Sentences
"Something begins to take charge of me, an intelligent automatism," Francis Huxley wrote later.
"Extreme intoxication" is a state akin to automatism in which a person is not acting voluntarily and its use as a defence requires the introduction of expert evidence.
Other analysts countered that the defense would be successful in only a minuscule number of cases and that there is a difference between extreme intoxication and extreme intoxication akin to automatism.
At issue was whether defendants accused of a violent crime in criminal court can raise extreme intoxication known as “non-mental disorder automatism” as a defense.
Another classic Surrealist technique: automatism, or unchoreographed doodling, through which artists believed they could escape the fetters of conscious composition to reveal a truth beyond rationality.
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