“A disturbance in the organization of thinking” may refer to a disruption in the way a person’s thoughts are structured, connected, and logically organized.
In mental health, this could be called disorganized thinking or a formal thought disorder.
What it may look like
A person may have difficulty:
- Keeping thoughts organized and connected
- Following a logical sequence
- Staying on topic
- Expressing ideas clearly
- Connecting conclusions to evidence or reality
- Communicating thoughts in a way others may easily understand
Examples
Loose associations:
“I went to the store. Stores have doors. Doors can be locked. Locked rooms remind me of prison.”
The ideas may shift from one topic to another with weak or unclear connections.
Tangential thinking:
A person is asked, “Did you sleep well?” and responds with a long discussion about their neighbors, politics, and the weather without directly answering the question.
Circumstantial thinking:
The person provides excessive, unnecessary details but eventually returns to the original point.
Illogical thinking:
“I failed the test, therefore the government must be controlling my thoughts.”
The conclusion does not logically follow from the premise.
Word salad:
Speech becomes so severely disorganized that the words and phrases are largely incomprehensible.
Important clinical point
A disturbance in the organization of thinking may be assessed by examining a person’s speech and thought process during a Mental Status Examination (MSE). It describes how thoughts are organized, not necessarily what the person is thinking about.
It may occur in conditions such as schizophrenia spectrum disorders, mania, severe psychosis, substance induced states, delirium, and some neurological conditions: please, consult a Neurologist. However, the symptom alone may not establish a diagnosis.
Shervan K Shahhian
LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 