psychopathography

English

Etymology

psycho- +‎ pathography

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsaɪ̯kəʊ̯pəˈθɒɡɹəfi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsaɪ̯koʊ̯pəˈθɑɡɹəfi/
• Hyphenation: psy‧cho‧pa‧thog‧ra‧phy

Noun

psychopathography (plural psychopathographies)

1. (medicine) A biography with respect to the subject's mental health.
   • 1989, Evelyne Keitel, Reading Psychosis: Readers, Texts, and Psychoanalysis, Blackwell Publishers, →ISBN, page 85:

     The way in which a psychopathography translates psychotic phenomena into linguistic structures determines, in turn, the exten to which such a borderline situation can be conveyed, and even experienced, in the reading process.

   • October 26, 2012; Wallace, Benjamin; "Autism Spectrum: Are You On It?"; New York Magazine:

     The same rose-colored impulse has driven an Aspie wave of revisionist psychopathography, in which such diverse historical figures as Thomas Jefferson, Orson Welles, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Andy Warhol, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are supposed to have been residents of the spectrum.

   • November 25, 2021; Jutel, Annemarie; Russell, Ginny; "Past, present and imaginary: Pathography in all its forms", Health, SAGE Publishing, page 6:

     In the case of both the living and the dead, psychopathography is used to describe extraordinary traits and enable an explanation for (what we consider) unusual behaviour that enables us to ‘come to terms’ with the actions. Historical review achieves thus, what Haridas refers to as a ‘hagiography’ or idealisation of the historical character. For Pol Pot or Hitler, retrospective diagnosis of a mental disorder allows us to come to terms with atrocity by explaining intent as an aberration of the mind.

Hypernyms

• psychobiography

Derived terms

• psychopathographical

Translations

biography

• Asturianu: sicopatografía f
• German: Psychopathographie f
• Spanish: psicopatografía f
• Turkish: psikopatografi