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infantilism
This term carries a strong clinical or critical tone depending on the context. In a psychological or medical setting, it describes a specific developmental or behavioral pathology. In a social or interpersonal context, it is often used pejoratively to describe an adult who refuses to accept responsibility or lacks emotional maturity, implying a failure to evolve into a functional adult.
Because it describes a state or condition, the word is typically used as an uncountable noun. It refers to the abstract quality of being infantile rather than a discrete object that can be counted.
Meanings
The condition of being infantile or childish in behavior, mental development, or physical characteristics.
His emotional infantilism made it impossible for him to handle the responsibilities of adulthood.
A medical or psychological condition characterized by the persistence of infantile traits beyond the normal age of development.
The patient exhibited a form of psychological infantilism as a defense mechanism against trauma.