The term's more familiar musical usage is bound to predispose most who discover it in a psychiatric context to assume a connection. Whether the word's musical overtones exert significant influence on perception and treatment of the condition is a question to consider. Definitions of Fugue In Music . In Psychiatry . A pathological response to trauma characterized by dissociative amnesia and travel to some unconsciously desired locality.
Rational behavior persists during the episode, which can last as long as several months.
On recovery, there is no memory of events that took place during the fugue state, unless these are brought to consciousness through hypnosis or psychoanalysis. There appears to be no record of how this happened. They were also comparatively short. By Bach's time, the form lengthened and became more complex. The fugue is composed of an introductory exposition, an ending coda, and a middle section usually longer than the other two parts put together.