Amentia

Amentia is an outmoded term that was used to refer to people with marked mental deficits. It was originally used to refer to people whose mental deficits appear early in life (as opposed to dementia that meant deficits acquired later in life). In the early 20th century the "ament" category was broad terminology referring to "idiots, imbeciles and the feeble-minded." Since then the latter terns have been dropped from psychological terminology and remain only as pejorative terms.