Lexicon · Glossary
A glossary of mental health and clinical terms
The APA Dictionary of Psychology — the standard free reference for definitions of clinical and research terms.
American Psychological Association4 min read
The APA Dictionary of Psychology is the standard free reference for mental health terminology, written and reviewed by psychologists. Useful for decoding clinical notes, research papers, and the increasingly clinical-sounding language of self-diagnosis on social media.
Pair with the NIMH glossary and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's behavioral-health terminology guide for treatment-system language.
Mental Hum's library is a curated index of authoritative third-party resources. The summary above is our own framing; the full information lives at the source.
A note on this article
Mental Hum publishes general education, not medical advice. If something here reflects your own experience, please consider speaking to a clinician. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.