catatonic

adj

1. Of, relating to, or suffering from catatonia; having a tendency to remain in a rigid state of stupor for long periods which give way to short periods of extreme agitation.

   “However, he was looking a lot more catatonic and depressed before and sometimes we find that on the anti-depressants you remove the depression and uncover the paranoid stuff and we may have to give him larger quantities of tranquilizers just to tone this down.”

   “It was plausible that Cara became more catatonic in order to avoid a painful and overwhelming confrontation with terrifying but repressed memories of child abuse.”

2. (figuratively)Motionless and unresponsive, as from shock; withdrawn.

   “He made Yossarian think of cripples and of cold and hungry men and women, and of all the dumb, passive, devout mothers with catatonic eyes nursing infants outdoors that same night with chilled animal udders bared insensibly to that same raw rain.”

   “Further and further he would withdraw from the world, becoming more and more catatonic — withdrawing completely from his hateful world to the only real and secure comfort he had ever known, the womb.”

   “The fact that he was not twirling his kiss curl underscored his catatonic state of mind. I didn't know who was more catatonic—Brentwood, the minister, or myself.”

   “A very young Ensign, in his first real contact with combat conditions, was in charge but was almost of no use as he began to hyper-ventilate and became more and more catatonic the closer they got to shore.”

noun

1. A patient in a state of catatonia.

   “An inspection of Table IV shows that the catatonics have the lowest mean reversal score of all the groups.”

   “I thought of children released from school; I thought of spring-awakenings after winter-sleeps; I thought of the Sleeping Beauty; and I also thought, with some foreboding, of catatonics, suddenly frenzied.”

   “All outward signs suggest that catatonics have ceased being subjects by virtue of having transformed themselves into veritable objects.”