Mad

Mad (pronounced mad)

(1) Mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented.

(2) Enraged; greatly provoked or irritated; angry.

(3) As madman or (metaphorically) mad dog, a person abnormally furious; ferocious (and can be applied literally to animals (mad bull etc), especially dogs afflicted with rabies (a rabid dog).

(4) Extremely foolish or unwise; imprudent; irrational.

(5) Wildly excited or confused; frantic (often as “in mad haste”).

(6) Overcome by desire, eagerness, enthusiasm etc; excessively or uncontrollably fond of (usually) someone; infatuated; (often as “madly in love”).

(7) Wildly lively and merry; enjoyably hilarious.

(8) Of extremes in climatic conditions (of wind, storms, etc), furious in violence.

(9) An angry or ill-tempered period, mood, or spell.

(10) As MAD, the acronym for mutually assured destruction: a theory of nuclear warfare deterrence whereby each side in a conflict has the capacity to destroy the other in retaliation for a nuclear attack.

(11) The acronym for the Militärischer Abschirmdienst, a counterintelligence agency of the German military (essentially the successor to the old Abwehr (1920-1944)).

(12) The acronym, in admiralty administration, for the Maritime anomaly detection in Global Maritime Situational Awareness, for avoiding maritime collisions

(13) The acronym, in astronomy, for the Magnetic anomaly detector which detects variations in Earth's magnetic field.

(14) The acronym, in high-energy physics, for the Methodical Accelerator Design, a CERN scripting language used in particle acceleration.

Pre 900: From the Middle English mad (adjective) & madden (an intransitive verb, derived from the adjective), from the Old English gemǣd, past participle of gemǣdan (to make mad), akin to gemād (troubled in mind; demented, insane, foolish).  It was cognate with the Old Saxon gemēd, the Old Norse meitha (to hurt, damage) and the Old High German gimeit (foolish, silly, crazy).  In the Old English, gemǣded was the past participle of gemǣdan (to render insane).  As an adjective, the comparative is madder and the superlative maddest but the strangest adjectival form is probably the very English maddish, suggesting some state between displeased and actually mad.  The ultimate root of the Old English forms was the Germanic adjective gamaidaz (changed for the worse, abnormal), the element “maid” from the primitive Indo-European moi-, a variant of the root mei- & moi- (to change, exchange, go, move), extended with a dental suffix (-d in Germanic; -t elsewhere).  The same suffixed variant moit- appears in the Latin mūtāre (to change, exchange, give and receive in exchange), familiar in COVID-19-era English as mutate.  The Sicilian Greek (a fork by virtue of geography always most likely to be influenced by Latin) has the noun moîtos (thanks, favor, reward), presumably a borrowing from the Old Latin moitus.  Mad is an adjective, verb & adverb; madder & maddeningness are nouns, adjectives & verbs, maddest, maddish & maddening are adjectives, madly & maddeningly are adverbs and madden & maddens are verbs; the noun use of mad is non-standard.

The synonyms for mad exist in its four senses (1) lunatic, maniacal, psychotic, crazed, crazy, nuts, kooky, nutty, insane, (2) furious, exasperated, livid, raging, wrathful, irate, (3) ill-advised; unsafe, dangerous, perilous & (4) absurd, fantastic, delirious, wondrous.  There is much overlap in the synonyms, insane historically meant “not sane, mentally unstable” but is now popular with the Instagram generation as a general expression of approval and "bonkers", while still meaning “not sane, mentally unstable” also (except in the US) has come to be used in an entirely non-pejorative way to suggest something astonishing in the sense of something or someone verging on the irrational but in some way inspiring; absurd works in a similar way.

Bonkers: 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170.

Because it makes Greta Thunberg (b 2003) mad, the likes of the SRT Demon 170 won’t be seen again but an off-the-shelf machine which can generate 1,025 horsepower makes a fine swansong.  To make Ms Thunberg madder still, it’s noted the induction system is capable of providing more fuel flow per minute than the average US showerhead and in a nice touch the purchaser will receive a commemorative Demon 170 decanter set.  Thousand horsepower cars for the street have traditionally been the preserve of madmen but mad women should be encouraged to give one a try.   

The word appears often in idiomatic use including “mad as a March hare” which alluded to hares becoming especially active in spring their mating season; “mad as a meat axe”, an especially evocative piece of Australian slang which is self-explanatory to anyone who has seen an un-skilled operator use a meataxe on a carcass and “barking mad”, the origin of which is mysterious.  The best story links it with the existence of a medieval lunatic asylum in the grounds of the royal monastery Barking Abbey (located in what is now the London borough of Barking and Dagenham) but there’s no evidence of use before the early twentieth century and most etymologists have concluded there’s a link with the idea “mad dogs” incessantly bark.  The London slang use suggesting someone is “three stops past Barking” is thought to have be an opportunistic adoption referencing the “barking” and in the vein of something like “a picnic short of a sandwich” which suggests some degree of mental incapacity.  There was even “shorthand slang” based on this idea: were one to be called “daggers”, it meant one was “three stops past Barking”, Dagenham being three stations beyond Barking on the London Underground.

The original meaning of mad was “insane, demented, disturbed of mind”, a sense inherited with the word from the Germanic forms.  The progression in meaning seems to have begun circa 1300 when the senses (1) “mad dog” (dog afflicted with rabies (rabid)), (2) “foolish or unwise” and (3), “overcome by desire or eagerness” emerged; the meaning “enraged, angry” not recorded until circa 1400.  This sense of mad quickly became the usual colloquial term in the United States whereas “angry” long persisted as the popular form elsewhere in the English-speaking world although the increasing US cultural influence noted since the mid-twentieth century makes these distinctions probably less noticeable.  The sense “wildly lively, merry” is said to be an innovation of African-American English associated with jazz and dating from the 1940s.  For those learning English, “mad” must seem a strange word given the social difficulties engendered if one accidently mixes up being “mad about you” with “mad at you”.  So students should be given practical examples such as: "I am mad about him" (I would like to enjoy intimacy with him); "I am mad at him" (I am angry with him or I would like to kill him); "He is mad" (he appears mentally unstable).

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

Another thing for them to learn was that wad was one of those words listed as a class-identifier by Professor Alan Ross (1907-1980), Professor of Linguistics at the University of Birmingham who in 1954 coined "U" (upper-class) and "non-U" (non-Upper-Class) to describe the differences social class makes in their use of English.  While his article included differences in pronunciation and writing styles, it was his list of variations in vocabulary which attracted most interest.  One difference he noted was the upper-class call the obviously unstable “mad” whereas the lower classes tend to label them “mental”.  Professor Ross published his illustrative glossary "U" and "non-U", differentiating the speech patterns in English social classes, in a Finnish academic journal and used extracts from Nancy Mitford’s (1904–1973 and the oldest of the Mitford sisters, all but one of whom society's more conventional types were apt to label "mad") 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love to provide examples of the patterns of speech of the upper class.  This pleased Nancy Mitford who interpolated the professor’s work into an article about the English gentry she was writing for Stephen Spender's (1909-1995) literary magazine Encounter (1953-1990).  Although not best-pleased that her discussion of the Ross thesis was the only part of her piece to attract attention, more amusing was the subsequent re-publication in 1956 in her Noblesse Oblige: an Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy which, augmented with contributions from John Betjeman (1906–1984) and Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966), meant that for decades she was the acknowledged authority on upper-class speech, manners and ways.  Her class-conscious readers had taken it all more seriously than she had intended.

Until probably sometime in the nineteenth century, for all but a few specialists, the condition of madness was relatively simple: people were mad or sane and while it was noted one could become the other, once labeled as mad one was by most, probably always thought mad and the punchy succinctness of the word could produce a memorable phrase such as the one used by Lady Caroline Lamb (1785–1828) to describe her lover, Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron 1788–1824): "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know".  The only widely observed nuances were behavioral and that was because madness was an observational diagnosis; there were those who were mad, slightly mad, quite mad and barking mad, hardly clinically exact descriptors but it’s doubtful many misunderstood what was being conveyed.  Modernity’s advances in neurology and pharmacology allowed the creation of psychiatry which began to gain a grudging acknowledged respectability in the medical profession around the turn of the century and it been a growth industry since.  The American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), when first published (DSM-I, 1952) was a slim volume of 130 pages which listed 106 mental disorders but by the time the fifth edition (DSM-5, 2013) was released it had grown to 947 pages although interestingly, the number of specific diagnoses was reduced from 172 in DSM-IV (1987) to 157, something of an achievement given 15 new mental illnesses were added.  It is though bit of a definitional minefield and there are those who suggest that once deconstructed, there are really over 300 identifiable conditions, some of the official 157 categories better thought of as groups or clusters.  However the count is done, nobody is expecting DSM-6 to contain fewer pages, whatever method is used to define the conditions so it seems there must been more to madness than once convenient mad-sane binary.

How much the proliferation of diagnosed madness is mission-creep and how much better understanding is a debate, mostly outside the profession.  Some of it is certainly an attempt to secure market-share for the psychiatrists, some “conditions” once thought normal as part of the spectrum of the human condition now listed as a disorder to be referred for treatment and in some cases this is doubtlessly a good thing although quite how reassuring a diagnosis of “generalized anxiety disorder” (GAD) is for a patient may be questionable.  GAD may also be overkill, the psychoanalyst having long supplanted the priest for those who can afford the hourly-rate, market share seems well secured.

Some of Louis Wain's drawings of cats, all reputed to date from his time of incarceration in a mental hospital during the 1930s.

The English artist Louis Wain (1860–1939) was a noted painter of cats, sometimes naturalistic, sometimes stylized and often anthropomorphic.  In his sixties he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and confined to a series of mental institutions, settling eventually in Napsbury Hospital, north of London.  By the standards of the time it was a convivial place with a park and a colony of cats and while his condition worsened, the frequency of his psychotic episodes decreased but drawings of cats he continued to produce became increasingly abstract, intricate and bizarre.  After 1930, he would never again leave Napsbury and there, in 1939, he died aged 78.

For a long time his paintings of cats have been used to illustrate an artist's descent into madness, a theme popular in those circles in which the notion of the "disturbed genius" is a cult.  However, the thesis has been questioned, notably on the technical ground of chronology; being undated, it can't be guaranteed the sequence of drawings as they're usually assembled are an accurate lineal progression of his work and doubt has been case even on the diagnosis of schizophrenia, some speculating the then not well understood medication used in the era to treat the condition may have contributed to his symptoms.

Vexillology

Vexillology (pronounced vek-suh-lol-uh-jee)

The study of and the collection of information about flags.

1957 (and in print since 1959): The construct was vexill(um) + -ology.  Vexillum (the plural vexilla) was from the Latin vēxillum (flag, banner), from the Proto-Italic wekslolom (and synchronically a diminutive form of vēlum), from the Proto-Italic wekslom, from the primitive Indo-European wegslom, from weg- (to weave, bind) and cognate with the English wick.  The Latin vexillum translated literally as “flag; banner” but in English was used to mean (1) a flag, banner, or standard, (2) in military use a formation company of troops serving under one standard, (3) the sign of the cross, (4) in botany, the upper petal of a papilionaceous flower and (5) in ornithology, the rhachis and web of a feather taken together.  The suffix -ology was formed from -o- (as an interconsonantal vowel) +‎ -logy.  The origin in English of the -logy suffix lies with loanwords from the Ancient Greek, usually via Latin and French, where the suffix (-λογία) is an integral part of the word loaned (eg astrology from astrologia) since the sixteenth century.  French picked up -logie from the Latin -logia, from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía).  Within Greek, the suffix is an -ία (-ía) abstract from λόγος (lógos) (account, explanation, narrative), and that a verbal noun from λέγω (légō) (I say, speak, converse, tell a story).  In English the suffix became extraordinarily productive, used notably to form names of sciences or disciplines of study, analogous to the names traditionally borrowed from the Latin (eg astrology from astrologia; geology from geologia) and by the late eighteenth century, the practice (despite the disapproval of the pedants) extended to terms with no connection to Greek or Latin such as those building on French or German bases (eg insectology (1766) after the French insectologie; terminology (1801) after the German Terminologie).  Within a few decades of the intrusion of modern languages, combinations emerged using English terms (eg undergroundology (1820); hatology (1837)).  In this evolution, the development may be though similar to the latter-day proliferation of “-isms” (fascism; feminism et al).  Vexillology, vexillologist vexillographer, vexillophilia, vexillophile & vexillolatry are nouns, vexillological & vexillologic are adjectives; the most common noun plural is vexillologists.

A vexillographer is one who designs flags, standards & banners, a vexillophile is (1) someone who collects and displays flags and (2) one who studies flags, their history and meaning.  Although there are vexillophiles, there is in medicine no recognized condition known as vexillophilia (which would be a paraphilia describing the sexualized objectification of flags (ie flag) although following the convention established in recent revisions to the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) (DSM-5 (2013) & DSM-5-TR (2022)), the correct clinical description would now be "foot partialism"; vexillophiles anyway prefer to describe themselves as "flag nerds".  Nor is there any record of there being instances of vexillophobia (a morbid fear of flags); there are those opposed to what flags represent  but that's not the same as being a vexillophobe which would be something specific about this type of bunting in general.  In political science, there is the word flagophobe (also as flagphobe), a derogatory term used usually by those on the right (and other nationalists) as a slur suggesting a want of patriotism in an opponent they’ve usually already labelled as “liberal”.  It's based on a metaphorical connection between a national flag and pride in one's country and is thus not a reference to a fear of flags in general.  To vexillize (or vexillate) can mean (1) to gather or to lead an army under a flag, (2) to organize or to lead people under a common cause or goal, (3) to make a flag (sewing, printing, digitally distributing etc), (4) to design a flag or (5) to introduce a specific depiction on a flag.

Wrapped: Vexillologist Lindsay Lohan and the stars & stripes.  The phrase “wrapping themselves self in the flag” is used of politicians who attempt to disguise their self-serving motives by presenting something as being in the national interest or being done for patriotic reasons.  The companion term is “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”, a observation made in 1775 by Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) of the hypocrisy of William Pitt (1708-1778 (Pitt the Elder); First Earl of Chatham & UK prime-minister 1766-1768).

Quite when the first flag was flown is not known but so simple is the concept and so minimal the technology required for fabrication that as forms of identification or communication they may have been among the earliest examples of symbolic representation.  Although the nation-state as its now understood is a relatively new creation (barely a thousand years old), prior to that there had for millennia been organized settlements with distinct identities and there is evidence from surviving works of art and drawings that something like a flag existed in the Mediterranean region as long ago as the fourth century BC and it’s possible such things were in use in China even earlier.  The familiar concept of the national flag evolved as the modern nation state emerged in Europe in the late Middle Ages and early modern period and traditionally, Denmark's Dannebrog is cited as the oldest national flag extant, having being in continuous use (though not always as the symbol of state) since the thirteenth century.

Denmark's Dannebrog (usually translated as "the cloth of the Danes").

The legend is that during a battle on 15 June 1219 in what is modern-day Estonia, the Danish army was on the defensive and defeat seemed imminent when suddenly, a red banner with a white cross fell from the sky.  As a result, the fortunes of war shifted, the Danish army won the battle and Denmark gained a flag.

Inherently, a small piece of colored glass three metres in the air can have no effect on a passing car yet the use of red, amber & green traffic lights is what makes modern road systems function as efficiently as they do.  They work because people (usually) respond as they should through the lens of semiotics, the signifier being the color of the light, the signified the instructions conveyed (green=”go”; amber=”prepare to stop or proceed with caution” & red=”stop”) and the referent the physical need to go, proceed only with caution or stop.  The power of the glass lies wholly in its symbolism and the implied consequences of ignoring its message.  Flags, mere pieces of fabric, have no inherent political or military force yet have for millennia been among the most valued and contested of symbols; men have died defending pieces of bunting which could have been replaced with a tick of a supply sergeant’s pen, simply because of the symbolism.  Symbolism has always been integral to the appeal of Nazism (and fascism in general) and by the early summer of 1942, on a map, the military position of Nazi Germany looked impressive, its forces still maintaining a presence in North Africa, most of Western Europe occupied from Norway to the south of France and the territorial gains from Operation Barbarossa reaching well into the Soviet Union.  However, the map substantially reflected the gains which had been made in 1941 and by mid-1942 it was clear to the German military they had under-estimated the ability of the Soviet armies to absorb losses and recover.  It was clear Germany no longer had the strength successfully to advance along the massive front created in 1941 and even Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) realized that, at least temporarily, more modest strategic aims would have to be pursued.

What Hitler set in train was a multi-pronged operation which would have been strategically sound had (1) the resources been available to sustain it and (2) there had not been such a gross under-estimation of the available Soviet military capacity.  Originally, the plan had been to advance on the Caucasus after the encirclement and destruction of the defending forces in the Stalingrad region and the occupation of the city itself.  This was changed, splitting the attacking force to allow the city and the Caucasus simultaneously to be conquered and the area envisaged was vast, including the eastern coast of the Black Sea, the forbidding Caucasian mountain passes and the oil fields of Grozny & Baku, far to the south.  The German generals didn’t need much more than the back of an envelope to work out it simply couldn’t be done and that rather than undertaking sound planning based on reliable intelligence, the Führer was indulging in little more than wishing & guessing.  “Wishing & guessing” was General George Marshall’s (1880–1959; US Army chief of staff 1939-1945) critique of Winston Churchill’s (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955) dabblings in military matters and the comment wasn’t unjustified but the difference was that while the Allied high command was able to restrain (and if need be, veto) the prime-minister’s romantic (essentially Napoleonic) adventurism, the Wehrmacht’s generals and admirals had by 1942 long been dominated by Hitler.  The German army was however generally the most effective ground force of the war and remarkably, achieved some early tactical gains but such were the distances involved and the disparity of forces available that the offensive was not only doomed but culminated in the loss of some 230,000 troops at Stalingrad, a calamity from which the army never quite recovered and among the German people damaged the prestige of the regime to an extent no previous setback had done.

Third Reich War Flag, Mount Elbrus, August 1942.

Hitler, at least in 1942, wasn’t delusional and understood he was running a risk but his gambler’s instincts had for twenty years served him well and he still clung to the belief a strength of will could overcome many disadvantages, even on the battlefield.  Early in the war, that had worked when he was facing divided, unimaginative or week opponents but those days were over and he was well-aware he was playing for high stakes from a position of weakness.  That he was under great pressure and wracked by uncertainty (whatever might have been his outward displays of confidence) was probably the cause of a celebrated over-reaction to what was one of the war’s more trivial incidents: the planting of the Nazi war flag on the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 m (18,510 feet) the highest point in Europe.  Hitler thought pursuits like mountain climbing and skiing absurd but, like any practical politician, he liked a good photo-opportunity and had in peacetime been pleased to be photographed with those who had raised the swastika on some mountain or other (something which dedicated Nazis had been doing since the 1920s, long before the party gained power in 1933.  On 21 August 1942, the Third’s Reich’s war flag, along with the divisional flags of the 1st and 4th Divisions fluttered in the wind on the roof of Europe and news of the triumph was transmitted to FHQ (Führer Headquarters).

In the throes of the offensive driving towards Stalingrad and the Caucases, the alpine troops who climbed the peak to plant the flag doubtless though they were “working towards the Führer” and providing him a priceless propaganda piece.  They probably expected medals or at least thanks but Hitler was focused on his military objectives and knew he needed every available man to be devoted to his job and upon hearing two-dozen soldiers had decided to ignore their orders and instead climb up a hill of no strategic value, just to climb down again, his reaction was visceral, recalled in his memoirs by Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945), then at FHQ:

“I often saw Hitler furious but seldom did his anger erupt from him as it did when this report came in. For hours he raged as if his entire plan of the campaign had been ruined by this bit of sport. Days later he went on railing to all and sundry about “those crazy mountain climbers” who “belong before a court-martial.” They were pursuing their idiotic hobbies in the midst of a war, he exclaimed indignantly, occupying an idiotic peak even though he had commanded that all efforts must be concentrated upon Sukhumi.”

The famous (and subtlety edited) photograph of the Soviet flag being raised over the Reichstag on 30 April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin (actually a staged-shot  taken on 2 May).

The Germans never made it to Sukhumi and the high-altitude sideshow by a handful of troops of course in no way affected the campaign but the reaction at FHQ was an indication of the pressure felt by Hitler.  The planting of a symbolic flag was also though symptomatic of the arrogance which had permeated the German military under the Nazis and it anyway proved a pyrrhic act of conquest, the standard torn down and replaced by the Soviet flag within six months; that the Russian army took the trouble to do that amid the clatter of war illustrates potency of national flags as propaganda devices.  One of the most famous photographs of the conflict was that of the Soviet flag in May 1945 being placed over the Reichstag in Berlin, a symbol of defeat of Nazism.  Interestingly, so important to the Kremlin was the image that the act was actually re-staged the next day, this time with a photographer in place to shoot a roll of film so the perfect shot could be selected and the Russians are not the only ones to have re-staged famous flag raisings.

Zoanthropy

Zoanthropy (pronounced zoh-an-thruh-pee)

In clinical psychiatry, a mental disorder; a delusion in which the patient believes themselves transformed into one of the lower animals; historically treated as a form of insanity in which one imagines themselves to be another type of beast.

1845: From the French zoanthrope (one who suffers from zoanthropy) or directly from the Modern Latin zoanthropia, the construct being zo-, from the Ancient Greek ζῷο (zôion) (animal, beast), from the Proto-Hellenic ďṓyyon, from the Pre-Hellenic gwyōwyon, from the primitive Indo-European gwyeh₃w-y-om, from gwei (to live) + anthrōpos (man); the use in English can thus be analyzed as zo(o)- + -anthropy.  The Greek ζώο (the plural ζώα)) translated literally as “animal, beast, creature” but among citizens was used as an insult to label someone was “a brute; stupid”.  In modern zoological use, it’s used to refer to mammals.  Zoanthropy is a noun and zoanthropic is an adjective; the nous plural is zoanthropies.

The modern terms (covering all animal-delusions and apparently extending to alien life-forms) are Species Identity Disorder & Species Dysphoria, sub-sets of the category Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) while the historic companion terms of Zoanthropy were Lycanthropy & Boanthropy.  Lycanthropy was from the Ancient Greek λυκανθρωπία (lukanthrōpía), from λυκάνθρωπος (lukánthrōpos) and in the mythology of Antiquity it described the state of being a lycanthrope (or werewolf), one who could shape-shift between being human and wolf, something often claimed to happen involuntarily during a full moon; werewolfdom has for centuries been a staple of writers of things supernatural.  In mythology, by extension, the word was used also to describe those able to shape-shift between the form of a human being and an animal, whether or not a wolf.  In modern psychiatry, it’s sometimes used to refer to the delusion in which one believes oneself to be a wolf or other wild animal.  Boanthropy is the delusion one is an ox or cow, the word derived from bovine, from the Late Latin bovīnus (relating to cattle), from the Classical Latin bōs (ox).  The terms Species Identity Disorder & Species Dysphoria are useful for clinicians who no longer have to deal with the proliferation of species-specific labels for the syndrome including Cynanthropy (dogs) & Ophidianthropy (snakes).  Presumably, while there might be behavioral variations between patients (one believing themselves to be a horse should move differently to one thinking they’re a frog), the treatment regimes will little differ so the names are really of more interest to word nerds than clinicians who have recorded, inter-alia, instances of delusional bees, cats, foxes & chickens.           

Reviews of the literature suggest Zoanthropy is a rare delusion.  There are countless folk who identify with animals and regard them as their spirit being (charismatic creatures like dolphins, eagles and the big cats being popular choices) but a zoanthrope actually believes themselves to be an animal, at least on occasions.  In the last two-hundred odd years, it seems there have been only a few dozen documented cases, three-quarters of whom also suffered some other mental disorders including schizophrenia, psychotic depression & bipolar disorder (the old manic-depression).  Patients suffered both permanent and transitory afflictions which could last only minutes or endure for decades.

Zoanthropic NFT: Lindsay Lohan's Furry canine (some suggested it was wolf-like) was rendered in dolichocephalic form.  The Lohanic fursona was first mentioned in September 2021 but not minted until October.

The fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 (2013)) noted (1) it was an inherently psychotic delusion because human metamorphosis into an animal is not possible (as opposed to other delusions which may seem bizarre but which are physically possible) and it seemed overwhelmingly to be associated with instances of monomania (excessive interest or concentration on a singular object or subject; a pathological obsession with one person, thing or idea; an excessive interest with a single subject).  Monomania (the plural monomanias or monomaniæ) was from the French monomanie or the Modern Latin monomania, the construct being mono-, from the Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos) (alone, only, sole, single) +‎ mania.  The suffix –mania was from the Latin mania, from the Ancient Greek μανία (mania) (madness).  In modern use in psychiatry it is used to describe a state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/or energy levels and as a suffix appended as required.  In general use, under the influence of the historic meaning (violent derangement of mind; madness; insanity), it’s applied to describe any “excessive or unreasonable desire; a passion or fanaticism” which can be used even of unthreatening behaviors such as “a mania for flower arranging, basket weaving et al”.  As a suffix, it’s often appended with the interfix -o- make pronunciation more natural.

Bizarre delusions have traditionally been associated with conditions such as Schizophrenia but the DSM-5 cast a wider net, noting with interest the frequency with which the metaphorical and symbolic language of biblical and other religious texts were mentioned by patients, especially in the specific type of zoanthropy known as boanthropy, the delusion which causes a patient to believe themselves to be a bovine, the fate of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon.  According to the Biblical prophet Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar was punished by God and lost his sanity for a period of 7 years:

“Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.” (Daniel 4:33)

There has had been speculation Nebuchadnezzar’s behavior may have been a manifestation of clinical Lycanthropy (the delusion of being a wolf) and the Bible makes 13 references to wolves, usually as metaphors for greed and destructiveness although what’s in scripture appears to be more consistent with Boanthropy and that would more align with the agricultural and historical contexts, cattle more common than wolves in the religious motifs and presumably also more numerous in ancient Babylon.

There are variations on the syndrome.  One man in Japan spent a reputed ¥2 million (US$13,500) on a bespoke dog costume to fulfill his desire to “become an animal”.  Known only as Toco, he has a YouTube channel (with some 56,000 subscribers and 3 million views) with footage of him being taken for a walk in a park, rolling on the ground, playing fetch and sniffing other dogs.  He also does a little twerking which will probably disturb as many as it delights.  Toco said he felt some nervousness before his first venture outside but that he’d since become more confident because of the warmth shown to him by people and, interestingly, (some) other dogs.  He added that he enjoys “doing things that only dogs do” without expanding on the comment.  There are practical difficulties Toco has faced including care of the costume which the specialist supplier Zeppet (best-known among film directors for creating sculptures and models for film, television commercials) took some weeks to fabricate before delivery in 2022.  Styled to look like a collie because that was his favorite breed, when outside he wears sandals to protect the feet from wear and stop the “fur” from getting too dirty.  Better to render his experience as a canine more “dog-like”, in February 2023, he acquired a cage and rather than wandering the house at night, Toco is locked in the cage although apparently not on a leash.  Had a leash been used however, that probably wouldn't have been thought an aspect of another syndrome because it was being used only in the context of "dogginess" rather than anything BDSM related.

Dog san: Part of an “interview” by German TV station RTL, 2022.

Predictably, his lifestyle choice has attracted both supporters and detractors but it appears not to be a case of zooanthropy (specifically Cynanthropy) because Toco describes his behavior as “play-acting like a collie”.  He those doesn’t believe himself to be a dog; he just enjoys appearing as one and interacting with others (people and dogs) on that basis, adding it was his “hobby”, one which “makes me happy and other people happy, too.” And what he does is notably less invasive than those who have undergone plastic surgery to give them the characteristic features of various creatures.  In an interview, Toco revealed he had been “dreaming of transforming into a dog since he was a child” so the interesting question is whether he should be considered a harmless eccentric or someone with some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder though clearly not classical zoanthropy.

Non-zoanthropic role-playing.  One astronaut took a gorilla-suit to the ISS (International Space Station).

Idiot

Idiot (pronounced id-ee-uht)

(1) In informal use (1) a foolish or senseless person (derogatory) or (2) an affectionate expression of disapprobation or disagreement.

(2) In medicine & psychology, a person of the lowest order in the former classification of intellectual disability (a mental age of less than three years old and an IQ (intelligence quotient) lower than 25; no longer in technical use; considered now generally offensive unless used affectionately.

1250–1300: From the Middle English idiote & ydiote, from the twelfth century Old French idiote (later idiot) (uneducated or ignorant person), from the Late Latin idiōta (an ignorant person), from the Ancient Greek ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs) (private person, layman, person lacking skill or expertise; an ignoramus (as opposed to a writer, soldier or skilled workman), the construct being idiō- (a lengthened variant of idio-, perhaps by analogy with stratiōtēs (professional soldier) derived from stratiá (army)) + -tēs (the agent noun suffix).  The Ancient Greek ἴδιος (ídios) meant " one's own, pertaining to oneself, private" and was a doublet of idiota.  Dialectical variations in English and Irish included eejit, idjit & idget.  The plural is idiots.  English offers a rich array of alternatives to idiot: fool, moron, nitwit, twit, blockhead, bonehead, cretin, dimwit, dork, dumbbell, dunce, ignoramus, imbecile, muttonhead, nincompoop, ninny, pinhead, simpleton, clodpoll, jerk, half-wit; dolt, dunce & numskull.

Use of the word "idiot" in headlines can hurt feelings.

The original meaning was “a person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning;" but this in Middle English later in the fourteenth century extended to "a simple man, uneducated person, layman".  A meaning shift had also happened in Latin, the classical form meaning “an ordinary person, layman; outsider" whereas in the Late Latin it conveyed the sense of "an uneducated or ignorant person".  This mirrored what happened with the Greek idiotes which meant literally "a private person" (ie a layman, someone uninvolved in public affairs) but came to be applied patronizingly to suggest someone "ignorant and uneducated".  In plural, the Greek word could mean "one's own countrymen."  In medieval English common law, the formalized distinction was between an idiot (one who has been without reasoning or understanding from birth) and a lunatic (who became that way later in life), and the difference could be important in determining the responsibility and punishment for crimes committed.  The idiot savant first appeared in medical literature in 1870; idiot box was first used to describe television in 1959 and, given that broadcasting had begun in the 1930s, it’s surprising it took that long to work that out; idiot light to describe the dashboard warning lights in cars is attested from 1961, a reference to drivers so lacking in mechanical sympathy not to notice indications of problems or bother to scan gauges.

The adjective idiotic was from 1713, following the Classical Latin idioticus and the Ancient Greek idiotikos; idiotical is from 1640s; the noun idiocy (state of being an idiot) is from the 1520s, from idiot on the model of prophecy etc and the early alternatives included idiotacy (1580s), idiotry (1590s).  Until well into the twentieth century, blithering was one of the more popular adjectives applied to idiot, the form dating from 1880, the present-participle adjective from the verb blither (to talk nonsense).  A handy adaptation of idiot was the in-joke among IT staff who sometimes classify problems reported by users as ID10T errors.

Comrade Lenin agitprop.

The term useful idiot is from political science and so associated with Vladimir Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (1870–1924; first leader of Soviet Russia 1917-1922 & USSR 1922-1924) that it's attributed to him but there's no evidence he ever spoke or wrote the words.  It became popular during the Cold War to describe pro-communist intellectuals and apologists in the West, the (probably retrospective) association with Lenin probably because had the useful idiots actually assisted achieving a communist revolution there, their usefulness outlived, he'd probably have had them all shot.  Although it took many Western intellectuals decades to recant (some never quite managed) their support for the Soviet Union, the watershed was probably Comrade Khrushchev's (1894–1971; Soviet leader 1953-1964)  so called "Secret Speech" (On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences) to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 25 February 1956 in which he provided a detailed critique of the rule of comrade Stalin (1878-1953; Soviet leader 1924-1953), especially the bloody purges of the late 1930s.  Some had however already refused to deny what had become obvious to all but avid denialists, The God that Failed a collection of six essays published in 1949 by poet Stephen Spender (1909-1995) et al in which the writers lay bare their sense of betrayal and disillusionment with communism because of the totalitarian state built by Stalin which was in so many ways just another form of fascism. 

Idiot, Imbecile & Moron

Idiot, imbecile, and moron were in the early twentieth century used in a psychological classification system, each one assigned to a specific range of abilities.

Idiots: Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that or a normal child of about two years.

Imbeciles: Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years.

Morons: Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years.

Of these three words moron is the newest, created only in the early twentieth century, coined specifically for the purpose of medical diagnosis.  Moron is from the Ancient Greek mōros (foolish, stupid), the root shared with the rare morosoph (a learned fool).  Imbecile dates from the sixteenth century, an adjective meaning "weak, feeble", from the Classical Latin imbecillus (weak, weak-minded) and not until the early nineteenth century did it begin to be used as a noun.  Moran actually replaced “feeble-minded” and “simpleton” (introduced in 1846) but neither were ever standardised in the medical lexicon.  The clinical use is now obsolete but the generalized use of all three is well established as terms of opprobrium for someone who acts in some dopey way or says something stupid, but, the convention is now they can only be applied to someone not cognitively impaired, an inversion of their original purpose when part of the system of classification.

In the early 1900s, as the profession of psychiatry became more accepted within medicine, the system of classification became increasingly scientific: Idiots were those with IQs between 0–25, imbeciles between 26-50 and morons between 51–70.  The interest in the then fashionable field of eugenics saw further refinements with a teleological flavor: the concepts "moral insanity", "moral idiocy"," and "moral imbecility" used by the emerging field of eugenic criminology, which held crime could be reduced by preventing "feeble-minded" people from reproducing and the US Supreme Court used the terminology in the judgment of forced-sterilization case Buck v Bell (274 U.S. 200 (1927)). 

The later introduction of retard, retarded & retardation was a genuine attempt to de-stigmatize those once labeled idiots, imbeciles & morons.  The process was the same as the invented word moron replacing “simpleton” and “feeble-minded” (from the Latin flebilis (to be lamented).  Retarded was from the Latin retardare (to make slow, delay, keep back, or hinder) and was first used in relation to developmental delay in 1895 and was introduced as an alternative to idiot, moron, and imbecile because at the time it wasn’t derogatory, being a familiar technical term from engineering and mathematics but the associative connection meant that by the 1960s, it had become an insult.  As "retarded" and the related clinical terms from psychiatry appeared on the euphemism treadmill they gradually assumed their derogatory connotations.  It seems to be an organic process in language, an original term, neutral in meaning, enters public use and because of the thing with which it’s associated, becomes pejorative, the process noted also with words which become racial slurs.  It’s a very particular process: “Chinaman” thought pejorative while “Englishman” is not; “Aussie” a term of endearment whereas as “Paki” is a slur although that too is circumstantial, commercial television station Channel 9 (Australia) using “The Pakis” in their promotional material for the coverage of the 1983-1984 cricket season.  It wouldn’t now be used.

So, as sympathy emerged for various sensitivities, the search for connotatively neutral replacements settled on variations of “intellectual disability”, the new sub-categories being profound, severe, and moderate levels.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1968 published (in an out-of-sequence amendment to the ICD-8 (International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems) a classification of intellectual disability (ID), based on what they called “relative degrees of cognitive functioning”:

Profound ID:          IQ below 20-25

Severe ID:             IQ 20-25 to 35-40

Moderate ID:         IQ 35-40 to 50-55

Mild ID:                 IQ 50-55 to 70

The alignment with the old system was idiot=profound, imbecile=moderate/severe and moron or feeble minded=mild but, by the time the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and ICD-10 were published in 1994, the profession was moving away from the use of raw IQ scores to something more nuanced, the DSM noting the importance of assessing “dysfunction or impairment” in at least two areas including “communication, self-care, home living, social/interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self direction, functional academic skills, work, leisure & health and safety”.  The ICD noted “mental retardation is a condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind, which is especially characterized by impairment of skills manifested during the developmental period, contributing to the overall level of intelligence- cognitive, language, motor and social abilities”.  However, the IQ baselines remained and the DSM-5 refined the model further, noting an intellectual disability should be defined by:

(1) Current intellectual deficits of two or more standard deviations below the population mean, which generally translates into performance in the lowest 3% of a person’s age and cultural group, or an IQ of 70 or below.

(2) Concurrent deficits in at least two domains of adaptive functioning of at least two or more standard deviations, which generally translates into performance in the lowest 3 % of a person’s age and cultural group, or standard scores of 70 or below.

Both assessments need to be measured with an individualized, standardized, culturally appropriate, psychometrically sound measure and needed to assess (1) conceptual skills (communication, language, time, money & academic), (2) social skills (interpersonal skills, social responsibility, recreation & friendships) and (3) practical skills (daily living skills, work & travel).  US legislation in 2010 required the terms "mental retardation" and" mentally retarded" be removed from federal records and replaced with "intellectual disability" and "individual with an intellectual disability", a change reflected in the DSM-5 (2013).

Sad

Sad (pronounced sad)

(1) Affected by unhappiness or grief; sorrowful or mournful; depressed, glum, melancholy; feeling mentally uncomfortable, discomforted, distressed, uncomfortable.

(2) Expressive of or characterized by sorrow.

(3) Unfortunate; unsatisfactory; shabby; in poor condition.

(4) Of color, somber, dark, or dull; drab; lacking brightness.

(5) Of music, an identifiable set of characteristics in composition which humans (with some cultural variations) perceive as evoking melancholy; poignant, touching.

(6) In slang, unfashionable; socially inadequate or undesirable deplorably bad; lamentable (probably interchangeable with “lame”).

(7) In slang (New Zealand), strongly to express displeasure.

(8) In baking (pastry, cakes et al) not having risen fully; heavy, soggy (no rare except regionally).

(9) As SAD, seasonal affective disorder.

(10) Heavy; weighty; ponderous; close; hard (obsolete).

(11) Valiant, firm or steadfast (obsolete).

(12) Dignified, serious, grave (obsolete).

(13) Sated, having had one's fill; satisfied, weary (obsolete).

(14) Naughty; troublesome; wicked (obsolete).

Pre 1000: From the Middle English sad, from the Old English sæd (grave, heavy, weary (originally “sated, full; having had one’s fill of food, drink, fighting etc)), from the Proto-Germanic sadaz (sated, satisfied), the source also of the Old Norse saðr, the Middle Dutch sat, the Dutch zad, the Old High German sat, the German satt and the Gothic saþs (satiated, sated, full)), akin to the Old Norse sathr, the Latin satis (enough) & satur (sated), and the Greek hádēn (enough), from the primitive Indo-European seto or seh- (to satiate, satisfy) from the root sa- (to satisfy).  Synonyms include unhappy, despondent, disconsolate, discouraged, gloomy, downcast, downhearted, depressed, dejected & melancholy; the antonyms including happy, cheerful, gleeful, upbeat & joyous.  Sad & saddening are nouns, verbs & adjectives, sadness is a noun, saddenest, sadded & sadding are verbs, sadly is an adverb, sadder & sadest are adjectives and sadden is verb & adjective; the noun plural is sads.  The special noun use of sad (plural sads) is as an alternative form of saad (the letter ص in the Arabic script which is the 14^th letter of the Arabic alphabet).

In Middle English & early Modern English the prevailing senses were "firmly established, set; hard, rigid, firm; sober, serious; orderly and regular but such notions (except in dialect) survive only among some bakers where the word is used to describe anything which has failed to rise and remains soggy, heavy and lacking fluffiness.  Etymologists assume the sense development was based on a transference of the idea of “heavy, ponderous” to Being “full” mentally or physically (ie “weary; tired of).  By the early fourteenth century, the familiar modern use to suggest “unhappy, sorrowful, melancholy, mournful” was established although a less supported alternative path of the change traces a course through the common Middle English sense of “steadfast, firmly established, fixed” (sad-ware described some notably tough pewter vessels) and “serious” to “grave.”  In the way sad is most used in Modern English, ultimately it replaced the Old English unrot which was the negative of rot (which confusingly to modern ears, meant “cheerful, glad”.  By the mid fourteenth century, the dominant meaning was to express “sorrow or melancholy” while the meaning “very bad, wicked” dates from the 1690s; that use faded but re-emerged in the late twentieth century, use the same way “lame” is deployed to describe the unfashionable or socially lamentable, a variation on the slang sense of “inferior, pathetic”, documented since 1899.  The “sad sack” (a usually miserable person)” dates from the 1920s and was popularized by World War II (1939-1945) era cartoon character published in US military magazine Yank, assumed by all to be a euphemistic shortening of the alliterative armed forces slang phrase sad sack of shit.

The verb sadden picked up the meaning “to make sorrowful” in the 1620s; until around circa 1600 it had meant “to make solid or firm” and the early verb was the simple sad, from the Middle English saden (become weary or indifferent (also “make (something) hard or stiff”, from the Old English sadian which may be the source of the modern verb but the history is tangled.  The intransitive meaning “to become sorrowful” dates from 1718.  The noun sadness developed from the early fourteenth century Middle English sadnesse (seriousness) and the reason it’s not entirely clear when the meaning shift to “sorrowfulness, dejection of mind” evolved is probably because there was such regional variation but it appears to have unfolded over the fifteenth & sixteenth centuries; throughout Middle English the word usually referred to “solidness, firmness, thickness, toughness; permanence, continuance; maturity; sanity”.  The adjective sadder (more sad) was from the Middle English sadder and saddest persist as the comparative & superlative forms.  The adverb sadly originally meant “heavily” & “solidly”, the use to convey “sorrowfully” emerging by the mid-fourteenth century.

Acronym Finder lists an impressive 104 acronyms or initialisms, some of the more memorable being Sex, Alcohol, Drugs; Social Anxiety Disorder; Search and Destroy; Seasonal Affective Disorder; Schizoaffective Disorder; Separation Anxiety Disorder; Stand Alone Dump; Single, Available & Desperate; Single Awareness Day (ie Valentine's Day); System Administrator (they prefer sysadmin or syscon); Scotland Against Drugs and Sullen, Angry, Depressed.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Avoiding SADness: Lindsay Lohan soaking up some sun in Prussian blue bikini with high-waist brief and halter-style top.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a particular instance of depression which is sometimes referred to as seasonal depression or winter depression.  SAD was first described in 1984 and included in the revision to the third edition (DSM-III-R (1987)) of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a “seasonal pattern”, a modifier applied to recurrent forms of mood disorders, rather than as an independent entity.  In the DSM-IV (1994), its status as a standalone condition was changed, no longer classified as a unique mood disorder but instead a specifier (called “with seasonal pattern”) for the “recurrent major depressive disorder that occurs at a specific time of the year and fully remits otherwise”.  In the DSM-5 (2013), although there were detail changes in terminology, the disorder was again identified as a type of depression (Major Depressive Disorder with Seasonal Pattern).  The symptoms of SAD often overlap with the behaviors & mood changes noted in clinical depression, the novelty being the condition manifesting usually during the fall (autumn) & winter when temperatures and lower and the hours of sunlight fewer, the symptoms tending to diminish with the onset of spring.  While notably less common, there are those who experience SAD during the summer and in either case it’s seen more frequently in women. SAD appears to be possible at any age but is most typically suffered in the age range 18-30.  In the US, the dynamic of the condition is illustrated by the diagnosis of SAD ranging from 1.4% of the population in sunny Florida to 9.9% in often gloomy Alaska and, after some initial sceptism, the condition was accepted as legitimate by most of the profession although there has been some contradictory research.  Although in a sense SAD has for centuries been documented in the works of poets and artists, it wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that structured research began and it has been linked to a biochemical imbalance in the brain prompted by exposure to reduced hours of daylight and a reduction in sunlight.  It’s thought that as the seasons go by, some experience a shift in their internal “biological clock” (circadian rhythm) which induces the mechanism to become asynchronous with their daily schedule.  SAD appears more prevalent among those living far from the equator where the conditions in winter are exaggerated.

Common symptoms of SAD include fatigue (even among those who increase their daily hours of sleep) and the weight gain associated with overeating and carbohydrate cravings.  The symptoms can vary from mild to severe and in many cases are little different to those associated with major depression including:

(1) Feeling sad or having a depressed mood.

(2) Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed.

(3) Changes in appetite; usually eating more, craving carbohydrates.

(4) Change in sleep patterns (usually sleeping too much).

(5) Loss of energy or increased fatigue despite increased hours of sleep.

(6) Increase in purposeless physical activity (eg inability to sit still, pacing, handwringing) or slowed movements or speech (to be clinically significant these actions must be severe enough to be observable to others).

(7) Feelings of worthlessness or guilt.

(8) Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions.

(9) Thoughts of death or suicide.

Risking SADness: Lindsay Lohan's strangely neglected film Among the Shadows (Momentum Pictures, 2019) was also released in some markets as The Shadow Within.  It's a gloomy piece, shot almost wholly in darkness and revolves around murderous werewolves and EU politicians (two quite frightening species).

There are several treatments for SAD including light therapy, antidepressant medications & talk therapy, sometimes used in combination.  Light therapy involves sitting in front of a light therapy box which emits a very bright light (while filtering-out harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays), usually for at least 20 minutes per day, typically first thing in the morning, during the winter months.  Most report some improvement after undergoing light therapy within 1-2 weeks of beginning treatment but the best results are obtained and relapse is most often prevented if the treatment is continued through the winter.  This is definitely a treatment rather than a cure and many re-start the therapy in the early fall to prevent any onset.  Talk therapy, particularly cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), has been used to treat SAD and the results appear to be similar to those suffering other forms of depression.  Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the anti-depressants most commonly used to treat SAD.

Rjukan's three-mirror array, reflecting the Sun's rays on the town square below.  Each mirror is 17²m (183 square feet).

The Norwegian town of Rjukan sits some 3 hours north-west of the capital, Oslo and is famously one of the darkest inhabited settlements on Earth, wholly without sun for five months of the year.  Some 3400 souls live in Rjukan, the town created by Norsk Hydro, the electricity company which built a hydro-electric plant on the nearby falls to generate large quantities of electricity.  The reason it spends so long in darkness is because it sits in a valley, surrounded by mountains which block the light.  In 1928, Norsk Hydro built a cable car to permit the town's residents to travel to the mountain top to enjoy some sunshine but recently, the town spent 5 million Norwegian Kroner (US$4.95 million) to install an array of moving mirrors to direct sunlight to the town square.  Solar-powered, the mirrors sit 450-metres up the slope and track the movement of the sun.  Not only has the innovation brought light into the lives of the locals but the motorized mirrors have become a tourist attraction.  The idea of such a mirror was actually not new and had been discussed since 1913 but one was installed only in 2013.

Citizens in the reflected Sunshine.