elective mutism

elective mutism (uncountable)

1. (clinical psychology, psychiatry) Dated form of selective mutism (“A severe anxiety disorder characterized by a total inability to speak in some social settings”). In the past, some clinicians erroneously believed that individuals with elective mutism chose to remain silent in some social situations as an act of defiance. Contrary to what was once believed, the inability to speak (mutism) is involuntary, thus the potentially misleading term elective mutism has largely been supplanted by selective mutism.