echopraxia

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ, “reflected sound, echo”) + πρᾶξις (prâxis, “action”), formed on the analogy of echolalia and apraxia.

Noun

echopraxia (countable and uncountable, plural echopraxias)

1. (psychology, pathology, psychopathology) The involuntary repetition or imitation of the observed movements of another.

   Synonym: echokinesis

   • 1906, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Volume 33, Williams & Wilkins, page 547:

     For example, a tic is an automatic form of echopraxia, involving to some slight degree the emotions and the volition and having been originally acquired by suggestion and imitation.

   • 1964, Digest of Neurology and Psychiatry, Volumes 32-33, Institute of Living, page 260,

     Echolalia and echopraxia have been recognized as symptoms of seriously disturbed behavior in adults for over a century.

   • 1966, The British Journal of Psychiatry, volume 112, Royal Medico-Psychological Association, page 241:

     Several patients, after repeated experience of echopraxia and pantomime, had the delusion that they could communicate with others without using words—merely transmitting ideas by a bodily movement.

Related terms

• copropraxia
• echolalia
• palipraxia

Translations

involuntary repetition of the observed movements of others

• Czech: echopraxie f
• Icelandic: hermifas n