Description and type: always late for class. Digressive/repressive or digressive/rebellious disorder.
Symptoms and signs: interrupts instructor's introductory remarks with knock on door, shamefaced apology, excuses. Typically misses first (and second) class meeting of semester, doesn't receive syllabus (leading to unpreparedness), will not ask for one until midterms.
Etiology: "forgetfulness" rooted typically not in mental laziness or other failing, but in repressed rebellion. An active desire not to learn, often stemming from some form of childhood recalcitrance, such as being unprepared for parental punishment or sexual abuse (and idealization of same).
Treatment: Detentiamine (Stayafter).
Prognosis: mixed. May resurface in altered form, especially that of other digressive/repressive disorders, such as indifference, pseudostupidity, silence, or unpreparedness.
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Copyright 1992 Doug Robinson and Bill Kaul