Circumstantiality and tangentiality

What it is

Circumstantiality and tangentiality are concepts of formal thought disorders. Both fill the reply with excessive and unnecessary details, and one thing alone separates them: whether the point is ever reached. Circumstantiality means giving excessive details before reaching to the point, so the answer does arrive, only with too much detail around it. In tangentiality the patient gives excessive details but never reaches to the point, because he keeps veering off-topic, and the answer never comes at all.