Psychopathologies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Mental health issues defined by extreme emotional and behavioral dysfunctions
2. Conditions characterized by disordered mental processes and atypical emotional responses
3. Psychological illnesses involving significant impairment in thoughts, feelings, or actions

Etymology: "Psychopathology" is a compound built from "psycho-", from Ancient Greek "psūkhē" meaning "soul" or "mind," and "pathology," which itself combines "pathos" (suffering, experience, or feeling, from "páskhō," "to suffer") with "-logia," the study of something. Read literally, it is the study of suffering in the soul, a phrase that sounds ancient but was assembled in modern times from classical building blocks. The second element carries the older history. "Pathology" passed through Latin "-logia" and French "-logie" before reaching English, where it originally named the study of disease. The word "psychopathology" then applied the same pattern to the mind, so the sense shifted from bodily illness to disturbances of thought, emotion, and behaviour. Ancient Greeks did not use this word; it is a modern coinage made from their roots. The plural "psychopathologies" is simply the form used when referring to several distinct conditions or systems of mental disorder at once.

Synonyms: mental disorders, psychological conditions, psychological disorders