slight variability of mood for insignificant, momentary reasons. An increase in mood has a tinge of sentimentality, tenderness; lowering – tearfulness, sometimes irritability. Emotional lability occurs in asthenic states of different genesis, organic lesions of the brain. A pronounced degree – emotional weakness or pseudobulbar affect (sharp mood swings on any occasion with the inability to restrain their external manifestations) – is characteristic of gross organic lesions of the brain (see Emotional faintheartedness in Chapter 2.1. Key Psychological Concepts in Clinical Psychology).