[Affective disorders due to the loss of mental self-activation. Comparison with athymhormia].

The affective state of the patients suffering from loss of psychic autoactivation (LPA) is preserved and is dampered as exhibited by a subtle examination, but depends on the same activation by the surrounding people as cognitive thought: it fades if the patient is not stimulated. This affectivity disorder cannot be responsible for LPA, but rather is part of its expression. The empty mind, characteristic of LPA, is not incompatible with the painful mood of the depression contrarily to our intuitive notion. In other words, the mood (or thymia) of patients with LPA is not neutral or null as suggested by the term "athymia". The term "anhormia" would describe rather well part but only a part of the disorder, the loss of drive. Furthermore, the term "self activation" has the advantage of highlighting, by contrast, the preserved heteroactivation, an essential part of the clinical picture. The heuristic value of this distinction is illustrated by the division it suggests between the so called "will" or "motivation" and of the circuitry supporting the two components. The term of LPA leads also to the description of a new state of conscious awareness, a consciousness devoid of any content.