Pathological
We use the term ‘pathological’ quite a lot. We talk about pathological liars and pathological fears for example. But what does pathological mean in these contexts?
Pathological comes from the English word pathology which is derived from the latin pathologia & the Middle French pathologie both of which, in-turn have their origins in the Greek word pathologia which originally meant the study of the emotions. Patho having a combined meaning of emotions, suffering and disease and logy meaning to study. To the ancient Greeks emotional suffering and disease (dis-ease or not being at ease) were considered to be deviations from normal good health.
Pathological therefore means anything that deviates from the normal or healthy and these days tends to mean extreme deviations, hence the connection with disease and pathology (the study of disease). So a pathological fear really means a fear that is not the norm and is considered to be unhealthy for the individual with the fear.
Tags: Pathological fear
