The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was used, in 1835-1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be used to indicate a stoppage of physical development.
However, in the UK Mental Health Act of 1983, the term "arrested development" was considered a form of mental disorder consisting of severe mental impairment, as a lack of intelligence. Other researchers have objected to the notion that mental development can be "arrested" or stopped, preferring to consider the mental status as developing in other ways, rather than the notion of mental growth as arrested. Consequently, in psychological terminology, the term "arrested development" is no longer used in referring to a developmental disorder in mental health.
In the field of developmental biology, the related term "neoteny" (or juvenilization) means the retention, by adults in a species, of traits previously seen only in juveniles.
Famous quotes containing the words arrested and/or development:
“Christ in this country would quite likely have been arrested under the Suppression of Communism act.”
—Joost de Blank (1908–1968)
“And then ... he flung open the door of my compartment, and ushered in “Ma young and lovely lady!” I muttered to myself with some bitterness. “And this is, of course, the opening scene of Vol. I. She is the Heroine. And I am one of those subordinate characters that only turn up when needed for the development of her destiny, and whose final appearance is outside the church, waiting to greet the Happy Pair!””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)