flight of ideas

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. a rapid flow of thought, manifested by accelerated speech with abrupt changes from topic to topic: a symptom of some mental illnesses, especially manic disorder.

Example Sentences

It was defined as a cycle of extremes; patients experienced recurring episodes of depression symptoms, then separate intervals of mania, which could include “hyperactivity, pressure of speech, flight of ideas, inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, distractibility, and excessive involvement in activities that have a high potential for painful consequences.”

From Slate

The symptoms, several of which should be noticeable to other people, can include “grandiose thinking, decreased need for sleep, rapid or pressured speech and/or flight of ideas, racing thoughts, distractibility, excessive goal-driven activity, and impulsive or reckless behavior,” Dr. Miklowitz said.

From New York Times

Guillermo Cecchi, an IBM researcher who was also involved in the recent Alzheimer’s research, studied speech in 34 of Dr. Corcoran’s patients, looking for “flight of ideas,” meaning the instances when patients were off track when talking and spinning off ideas in different directions.

From New York Times

Manic states can occur in any kind of mental structure, and a focus is needed on what early psychiatrists saw as central to manic depression: the flight of ideas, where one thought leads to another ferociously and incessantly; the need to communicate with others and share with them; the sudden ability to joke, pun and make repartee; and the ubiquitous spending sprees and business ventures of the manic subject.

From The Guardian

The spread of knowledge from engineer to engineer, from designer to designer, from trader to trader is the same as the flight of ideas from painter to painter, and urban density has long been at the heart of that process.

From Scientific American