A.Word.A.Day -- trichotillomania

A.Word.A.Day

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Jul 10, 2000

This week's theme
Words to drop into conversations with a therapist

This week's words
trichotillomania
cathexis
arctophile
symbiosis
nisus
acedia
thanatophobia

Previous week’s theme
Unusual, esoteric, preposterous words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Do you have trouble verbalizing yourself to your psychologist? Do you find yourself at a loss for words while lying on that couch when the clock is ticking? Don't despair! This week's AWAD will help you and your therapist understand you. These are words to drop into conversation with a psychoanalyst, psychologist or a psychiatrist.

PS: If doc is the short form of doctor, could psychoanalyst be shortened to psycho? Did you notice the word therapist can be hyphened as the- rapist?

PPS: Note to those not living in the Americas: Despite what the citation for today's word may lead you to think, most Americans don't pull their hair out.

trichotillomania

(trik-uh-til-uh-MAY-nee-uh)

noun: A compulsion to pull out one's hair.

[Tricho- hair + Greek till(ein) to pluck, pull out + -o- + -mania.]

"In this morning's 'Healthy Woman,' we're going to look at a disorder that you've probably never heard of. I hadn't. It is one that afflicts millions of Americans. It is called trichotillomania. It is an uncontrollable urge to pull out one's hair."
Charles Gibson, Healthy Woman, ABC Good Morning America, May 27, 1999.

X-Bonus

The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. -John Milton (1608-1674) [Paradise Lost]

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