Definition of "narcoanalysis" [narcoanalysis]

• Psychotherapy conducted while the patient is in a sleeplike state induced by barbiturates or other drugs, especially as a means of releasing repressed feelings, thoughts, or memories. Its use is restricted to circumstances when there is a compelling, immediate need for a patient's responses. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Whenever I endorse narcoanalysis for terrorists, people ask how we could put someone in a semi-surgical state and insert something into them without their consent?"
• "UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The culprit has not come out on his own .... that's why we are adopting the scientific method of narcoanalysis."
• "T.D. D.GRA, FORENSIC MED.CINE, AIMS: This is narcoanalysis -- the person is administered some drug -- say for example, sodium pentothal may be given and after administering this drug, to a level the person goes to a stage of that neither is unconscious nor is conscious."