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Abstract
In psychiatry, oligophrenia, or congenital dementia, refers to a group of pathologic mental states that are congenital or acquired in early infancy. The general and principal sign of oligophrenia is a deficiency in intellectual activity — feeblemindedness of varying degrees — combined with disturbance of other aspects of the cognitive process, above all with affective and volitional disorders and various physical and neurological symptoms. Korsakov pointed out that an incapacity to comprehend the meaning and substance of things and phenomena and a frequent absence of purpose in intellectual acts were characteristic of patients with this condition. As a rule, oligophrenia is not marked by an exacerbation of pathologic mental changes, and in this respect it differs from other mental diseases. Congenital dementia is distinguished from acquired dementia, which is characterized by a reduction or disintegration of normal mental activity as a result of some pathologic process.