different between automatism vs involuntariness

English

Etymology

From automat(on) + -ism.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???t?m?t?z?m/

Noun

automatism (countable and uncountable, plural automatisms)

1. Acting automatically or involuntarily.
2. The power of initiating vital processes from within the cell, organ, or organism, independent of external stimulus.
3. The doctrine that animals are automata, operating according to mechanical laws.
4. (psychology) An action performed subconsciously, without any apparent direction from the mind; a thought which appears spontaneously in one's consciousness.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society 2008, p. 200:

     generalising this phenomenon, Mr Myers has given the name of automatism, sensory or motor, emotional or intellectual, to this whole sphere of effects, due to ‘uprushes’ into the ordinary consciousness of energies originating in the subliminal parts of the mind.

5. (art) A surrealist painting technique whereby one attempts to move the brush, pen etc. without conscious control over it.

Related terms

• automaticism

Translations

Romanian

Etymology

From French automatisme

Noun

automatism n (uncountable)

1. automatism

Declension

English

Etymology

involuntary +? -ness

Noun

involuntariness (uncountable)

1. The state of being involuntary; unwillingness; automatism.

Antonyms

• voluntariness

References

• involuntariness in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• involuntariness in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• nonuniversalist