The Seba library treats Perseveration in 9 passages, across 4 authors (including Jung, C. G., Jung, C.G., Bleuler, Eugen).
by perseveration we understand a phenomenon that consists in the fact that the preceding association conditions the next reaction.
Jung’s canonical definition: perseveration is the carryover influence of one association onto the immediately subsequent reaction, treated here as a discrete, measurable category within word-association research.
, Experimental Researches, 1904thesis
three subsequent reaction times are overlong on account of the perseveration of the reaction to the stimulus word. The test person was quite unconscious of the fact that he had an emotion.
Jung demonstrates in the Tavistock Lectures that perseveration of a critical stimulus-word’s emotional charge manifests as a chain of prolonged reaction times of which the subject remains entirely unaware, constituting direct experimental evidence of unconscious affect.
, Collected Works Volume 18: The Symbolic Life, 1976thesis
perseverations (i.e., the patient clings to some specific act or word, etc.) which, by some authors, are not clearly distinguished from the stereotypies, although the two phenomena are essentially different.
Bleuler insists on a rigorous nosological separation of perseveration from stereotypy and verbigeration, arguing that conflating these phenomena obscures clinically distinct mechanisms, particularly the difference between organic and schizophrenic pathology.
, Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias, 1911thesis
Perseveration, i.e., a disturbing influence on subsequent reactions.
In his taxonomy of complex-indicators used for psychological diagnosis of evidence, Jung lists perseveration — defined as a disturbing influence on subsequent reactions — as one of eleven identifiable markers of emotionally charged content.
, Experimental Researches, 1904supporting
the emotional charge often perseverates into the post-critical reaction. In this way it could be hoped that the complex-constellation would emerge fairly clearly.
Jung describes his deliberate experimental design — placing irrelevant words immediately after critical ones — precisely to exploit perseveration as a mechanism that would amplify the visibility of complex-constellation in the association data.
, Experimental Researches, 1904supporting
Thus we have here a perseveration of purely external nature. With internal distraction we find in our subject an example of persistent perseveration of visual images appearing with the reaction.
Jung distinguishes between external perseveration (mechanical repetition) and internal perseveration of visual images, indicating that the phenomenon operates across both sensory-motor and imagistic levels of associative processing.
, Experimental Researches, 1904supporting
Hence the perseveration of green and the slip of the tongue mouse.
Jung traces a concrete instance of perseveration — the recurrence of the color ‘green’ across reactions — to a cluster of feeling-toned images associated with a personal complex, linking perseveration directly to affective constellation.
, Experimental Researches, 1904supporting
the subject thought he heard schon [beautiful]; we might have here a perseveration of the umlaut) yesterday yesterday song Lore … a perseveration of the reaction.
Jung identifies phonological perseveration (umlaut carryover) alongside semantic perseveration in the same series, illustrating that the phenomenon operates at multiple linguistic levels and can be entangled with complex-driven material.
, Experimental Researches, 1904supporting
Biological mechanisms associated with increased perseveration and hyperactivity in a genetic mouse model of neurodevelopmental disorder.
A contemporary neuroscientific reference situates perseveration within a biological and neurodevelopmental framework, connecting it to hyperactivity in an ADHD-relevant model and gesturing toward neuroendocrine substrates.
, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and the menstrual cycle: Theory and evidence, 2024aside