# Alogia wiki: [Alogia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alogia) > In psychology, **Alogia** (; from Greek ἀ-, "without", and λόγος, "speech" + New Latin -ia) is poor thinking inferred from speech and language usage. > There may be a general lack of additional, unprompted content seen in normal speech, so replies to questions may be brief and concrete, with less spontaneous speech. This is termed poverty of speech > or laconic speech. > The amount of speech may be normal but conveys little information because it is vague, empty, stereotyped, overconcrete, overabstract, or repetitive. > This is termed poverty of content > or poverty of content of speech. > Under Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms used in clinical research, thought blocking is considered a part of alogia, and so is increased latency in response.This condition is associated with schizophrenia, dementia, severe depression, and autism. > As a symptom, it is commonly seen in patients with schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder, and is traditionally considered a negative symptom. It can complicate psychotherapy severely because of the considerable difficulty in holding a fluent conversation. > The alternative meaning of alogia is inability to speak because of dysfunction in the central nervous system, > found in mental deficiency and dementia. > In this sense, the word is synonymous with aphasia, > and in less severe form, it is sometimes called dyslogia. ---