During a single conversation, a patient moves rapidly between tearfulness, laughter, and irritability, each shift abrupt and more pronounced than the conversation would seem to call for, though she is able to compose herself again within moments each time. Before revealing the answer: is this affective incontinence?
No, this is more consistent with lability of affect than with affective incontinence. Affective incontinence involves a genuine loss of voluntary control over the display; here, the patient retains the ability to compose herself again within moments each time, which is the pattern of rapid but still somewhat modulated shifting characteristic of lability of affect rather than a true loss of control.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Ch. 6, 'Disorders of Emotion'.