Human Development

Cataplexy

Description:
A state of total immobility where the individual is conscious but unable to respond which may occur in response to an anaesthetic (when an operation may unwittingly be carried out on a conscious patient) or to a sudden physical and/or emotional shock. The effect is as if hypnotized by fright, and is the extreme case of the common being "paralyzed with fear". Unlike the [cataleptic] state, however, the individual remains conscious.