1. The state of being independent of the will or of central innervation; applicable, for example, to the heart’s action.
2. An epileptic attack consisting of stereotyped psychic, sensory, or motor phenomena carried out in a state of impaired consciousness and of which the individual usually has no knowledge.
3. A condition in which an individual is consciously or unconsciously, but involuntarily, compelled to the performance of certain motor or verbal acts, often purposeless and sometimes foolish or harmful. Syn: telergy.
Origin
[G. automatos, self-moving, + -in]
ambulatory automatism
immediate posttraumatic automatism