"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
John Edgar wrote:
My OED has the following,
"psychopath n.
1a person suffering from chronic mental disorder esp. with abnormal
or
violent social behaviour.
2a mentally or emotionally unstable person."
IIRC you omitted the 'esp.' (presumably 'especially')from 1a and
didn't
mention 2a at all.
Well my C.O.D doesn't. I would refer you to the C.O.D., 1999
edition,
p1154.
John
If there's a dictionary war on,
There isn't - I was intrigued by the apparently selective quote from the
COD, which John has explained bears a different definition in the edition he
quoted.
let's be clear about what weapons we
use. The above definitions come from the COD (_Concise Oxford
Dictionary_), not from the OED (_Oxford English Dictionary_).
The COD is a small desk dictionary. The OED is an attempt to record
almost every way almost every word has ever been used in English,
with examples, in some twenty big volumes; the latest edition is
bigger, and available only electronically.
I'm not being fussy: the difference is like that between a spoon and
a shovel.
Which is why I seldom consult my unwieldy OED. This from my OED, (but its
only the 2nd Edition),
psychopath (___, __________).
[f. psycho- + Gr. ______, f. _____ suffering. Cf. neuropath, etc.]
One affected with psychopathy; a mentally deranged person. Cf. psychopathy.
1885 Pall Mall G. 21 Jan. 3/2 Psychopathy._ We give M. Balinsky's
explanation of the new malady. _The psychopath_is a type which has only
recently come under the notice of medical science._ Beside his own person
and his own interests, nothing is sacred to the psychopath'.
1890 Univ. Rev. 15 Mar. 310 He was what Russians call a _psychopath', a
being whom Russian laws refuse to punish even for murder.
1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Exper. 7 From the point of view of his
nervous constitution, Fox was a psychopath or détraqué of the deepest dye.
1927 New Republic 21 Sept. 128/2 Terms not so long ago confined to
specialists are handled familiarly by the laity: moron, inferiority complex,
mental age,_paranoid delusions, psychopaths.
1955 D. J. West Homosexuality ix. 106 Psychopaths are the last people to try
to battle against their instincts; they just obey first impulses regardless
of social codes. Being incapable of prolonged or deep personal attachments,
they seek only an immediate outlet for their lust.
1967 Listener 20 Apr. 529/3 The term psychopath is bandied about in such a
way as to make it cover almost any mental disorder._ However the psychopath
has now achieved legal status in the Mental Health Act of 1959 as having _a
persistent disorder or disability of mind_which results in abnormally
aggressive or seriously irresponsible behaviour'.
1967 M. Argyle Psychol. of Interpersonal Behaviour i. 21 It is one of the
marks of the psychopath that he will engage in social behaviour in so far as
it is_profitable to do so, but he has no intrinsic attraction to other
people at all. For the psychopath there is no particular difference between
people and things.
1972 Observer 31 Dec. 23/4 If she's a psychopath I'm a fruit cake. She's
just a girl who needs love.
psychopathic (___, ____________), a. (n.)
[f. psychopathy + -ic.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of mental disorder, now spec.
psychopathy.
b. Subject to or affected with mental disorder, now spec. psychopathy;
mentally deranged.
c. Engaged in the treatment of mental disorder.
1847 tr. Feuchtersleben's Med. Psychol. (Syd. Soc.) 65 A public address to
the psychopathic physicians of Germany.
1899 [see hereditary a. 2 a].
1901 Lancet 20 Apr. 1126/2 This condition_proves its psychopathic basis.
1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Exper. 157 He [Bunyan] was a typical case of
the psychopathic temperament, sensitive of conscience to a diseased degree.
1932 Sun (Baltimore) 19 Sept. 2/2 The court_ found that Duker is afflicted
with a definite mental ailment or disorder known as psychopathic
personality, which had reduced his mental and moral responsibility and
control but that he is sane according to the legal standard.
1949 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XL. 12 The Psychopathic Personality (P.P.P.) is
one of the major problems of the Prison Commission.
1957 R. F. C. Hull tr. Jung's Compl. Wks. I. 111 In many psychopathic
illnesses there are persons who think unclearly and are prone to flights of
ideas, who are ruthlessly egocentric_but who can hardly be said to be
suffering from chronic mania.
1959 Mental Health Act 7 & 8 Eliz. II c. 72. i. _4 In this Act _psychopathic
disorder' means a persistent disorder or disability of mind (whether or not
including subnormality of intelligence) which results in abnormally
aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct on the part of the patient,
and requires or is susceptible to medical treatment.
1968 [see moral a. 7 a].
1976 Times 4 Aug. 5/7 All we can do is protect society from them. Grossly
psychopathic people cannot be befriended.
1977 P. Way Super-Celeste i. 53 Such men_work to please whatever passions
and psychopathic urges drive them personally.
2. Of or pertaining to the treatment of disease by _psychic' means, as by
hypnotism.
1890 in Cent. Dict.
B. absol. as n. = psychopath.
1890 in Cent. Dict.
1896 F. P. Cobbe in Daily News 13 Apr. 7/7 They are _psychopathics'---a term
which Prof. James, of Harvard University, employs to denote an inborn
aptitude to immoral actions in any direction.
Hence
psycho_pathically adv.
1961 in Webster.
1972 Lancet 18 Nov. 1069/2 The psychopathically aggressive, the rigidly
authoritarian.
So there! :-)
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