Psychosis

Psychosis (pronounced sahy-koh-sis)

In psychiatry, a severe mental disorder (sometimes with physical damage to the brain), more serious than neurosis, characterized by disorganized thought processes, disorientation in time and space, hallucinations, delusions and a disconnection from reality.  Paranoia, manic depression, megalomania, and schizophrenia are all psychoses.

1847: From the New Latin & Late Greek psȳ́chōsis, the construct being psycho- + -osis, the source being the Ancient Greek ψύχωσις (psúkhōsis) (animation, principle of life), psych from the Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ or psykhē) (mind, life, soul).  The suffix –osis is from the Ancient Greek -ωσις (-ōsis) (state, abnormal condition or action), from -όω (-óō) (stem verbs) + -σις (-sis); -oses was the plural form and corresponding adjectives are formed using –otic, thus respectively producing psychoses and psychotic.  The Ancient Greek psykhosis meant "a giving of life; animation; principle of life".  In English, the original 1847 construction meant "mental affection or derangement" while the adjective psychotic (of or pertaining to psychosis) dates from 1889, coined from psychosis, on the model of neurotic/neurosis and ultimately from the Ancient Greek psykhē (understanding, the mind (as the seat of thought), faculty of reason).

In clinical use there are many derived forms (with meanings more precise than is often the case when such words migrate to general use) including antipsychotic, micropsychotic, neuropsychotic, nonpsychotic, postpsychotic, prepsychotic, propsychotic, protopsychotic, quasipsychotic, semipsychotic & unpsychotic.  The useful portmanteau word sarchotic (the construct a blend of sarcastic +‎ psychotic) is used to describe a statement so distrubingly sarcastic it can't be certain if the remark is intended to be humerous or the person making it genuinely is psychotic and even then there are graduations for which the adverb is used, the comparative being "more psychotically" and the superlative "most psychotically".  Psychosis & psychoticism are nouns, psychotic is a noun & adjective and psychotically is an adverb; the noun plural is psychoses.

Psychosis and the DSM

The word psychosis was a mid-nineteenth century creation necessitated by early psychiatry’s separation of psychiatric conditions from neurological disorders.  Originally a generalized concept to refer to psychiatric disorders, gradually it became one of the major classes of mental illness, assumed to be the result of a disease process, and, more recently, to a symptom present in many psychiatric disorders.  During this evolution, the diagnostic criteria shifted from the severity of the clinical manifestations and the degree of impairment in social functioning to the presence of one or more symptoms in a set of psychopathological symptoms.  By the early twentieth century, the concept of neurosis (which once embraced both the psychiatric and the neurological disorders), became restricted to one major class of psychiatric disease whereas psychosis (which once embraced all psychiatric disorders) became restricted to the other.

The first consensus-based classification with a description of diagnostic terms was in the first edition (DSM-I (1952)) of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in which mental disorders were divided into two classes of illness: (1) organic disorders, caused by or associated with impairment of brain tissue function; and (2) disorders of psychogenic origin without clearly defined physical cause or structural changes in the brain.  When DSM-II (1968) was released, the classifications were revised with mental disorders now classed as (1) psychoses and (2) neuroses, personality disorders, and other non-psychotic mental disorders.  Psychosis was defined as a mental disorder in which mental functioning is impaired to the degree that it interferes with the patient's ability to meet the ordinary demands of life and recognize reality.

Advances in both neurology and psychiatry led to an extensive revision in DSM-III (1980).  Radically, all traditional dichotomies (organic versus functional, psychotic versus neurotic etc) were discarded with psychiatric syndromes assigned to one of fifteen categories of disease.  At the labelling level, the term psychotic was used to describe a patient at a given time, or a mental disorder in which at some time during its course, all patients evaluate incorrectly the accuracy of their perceptions and thoughts but the editors emphasized it should not be applied to patients suffering only minor distortions of reality, regardless of how exactly they might fulfil the clinical criteria.  The revisions in DSM-III-R (1987) extended only to slight changes in terminology.

Mirroring the changes in diagnostic criteria published by the WHO, DSM-IV (1994) noted the diagnosis of psychosis should no longer be based on the severity of the functional impairment but rather on the presence of certain symptoms which included delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior.  This emphasis on psychoses being spectrum conditions was continued in DSM-5 (2013) with schizoid (personality) disorder and schizophrenia defining its mild and severe ends.  Additionally, a more precise diagnostic framework was defined in which patients were assessed in terms both of symptoms and duration of suffering.

Two examples of "schizophrenia art".

My Eyes in the Time of Apparition (1913) by August Natterer (1868-1938).

The life of German artist August Natterer began innocuously enough, studying engineering, travelling extensively, marrying and building a successful career as an electrician.  However, in his thirties, he began to experience anxiety attacks and delusions and in 1907 suffered a hallucination in which thousands of images flashed before his eyes in little more than thirty minutes.  So affected by the experience that he attempted suicide, he was admitted to an asylum and would spend the remaining quarter-century of his life in and out of institutes for the insane.  In the literature, Natterer is referred to as Neter, a pseudonym used by his psychiatrist to protect patient and family from the social stigma then associated with mental illness.  He described the 1907 hallucination as a vision of the Last Judgment which he described as:

"...10,000 images flashed by in half an hour.  I saw a white spot in the clouds absolutely close – all the clouds paused – then the white spot departed and stood all the time like a board in the sky. On the same board or the screen or stage now images as quick as a flash followed each other, about 10,000 in half an hour… God himself occurred, the witch, who created the world – in between worldly visions: images of war, continents, memorials, castles, beautiful castles, just the glory of the world – but all of this to see in supernal images. They were at least twenty meters big, clear to observe, almost without color like photographs… The images were epiphanies of the Last Judgment. Christ couldn't fulfil the salvation because he was crucified early... God revealed them to me to accomplish the salvation."

After his suicide attempt and committal to the first of what would be several mental asylums, Natterer thereafter maintained that he was the illegitimate child of Emperor Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; leader of the French Republic 1799-1804 & Emperor of the French from 1804-1814 & 1815)) and "Redeemer of the World".  The vision inspired Natterer to a prolific production of drawings, all documenting images and ideas seen in the vision, one especially interesting to those studying psychosis and schizophrenia being My Eyes in the Time of Apparition (1913), two eyes bloodshot and wide-open eyes staring from the page.  The irises of the eyes do not match.

The Scream (1893), oil, tempera & paste on cardboard, by Edvard Munch (1863-1944), National Gallery of Norway.

Norwegian Edvard Munch was one of a number of artists modern psychiatrists have written of as having both genetic and environmental predispositions to mental illness, schizophrenia in particular; one of Munch’s sisters had schizophrenia, his father suffered from depression, his mother and another sister dying from tuberculosis when he was young.  Munch though was a realist, once telling an interviewer, “I cannot get rid of my illnesses, for there is a lot in my art that exists only because of them.”  The idea of affliction as a source or artistic inspiration appears often in the literature of art, music and such and in that it's something of a parallel with those who produce their finest work while living under political oppression; unpleasant as that can be, reform can see careers suffer, famous dissidents abruptly left as "rebels without a cause" after the fall of the Soviet Union (1922-1991) and a generation of the UK's activists found grist for their mills less prolific after the Tory Party had Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013; UK prime-minister 1979-1990) walk the political plank.  Where one door closes however, another sometimes opens and in John Major (b 1943; UK prime-minister 1990-1997) the comedians found a rich vein of material.    

His was a troubled life and in 1908, following a psychotic break exacerbated by alcoholism, Munch was admitted to a mental health clinic, later diagnosed with neurasthenia, a clinical condition now known to be closely associated with hypochondria and hysteria.  Adding to his problems, the Nazis labelled Munch’s style “degenerate art” and in 1937 confiscated many of his works but their disapprobation had less of an influence on his painting than his schizophrenia, his output continuing to feature figures obviously tortured by anguish and despair.  The apparently frantic strokes of the brush and his seemingly chaotic pallet of colors have long intrigued both critics and clinicians seeing insight into his state of mind, the idea being his paintings provide something of a visual representation of how schizophrenia might lead individuals to see the world.

Lindsay Lohan, following Edvard Munch, rendered by Vovsoft in comicbook style.

Endlessly reproduced, the subject of numerous memes and the inspiration for many re-interpretations, The Scream is Munch’s most famous work and the most emblematic of what now casually is called “schizophrenic art” (unfortunately often conflated with “art by schizophrenics”).  For decades it has been the chosen artistic representation for the angst-ridden modern human condition, the artist in 1890 noting in his diary a still vivid memory: “I was walking along the road with two friends—the sun went down—I felt a gust of melancholy—suddenly the sky turned a bloody red... I felt this big, infinite scream through nature.”  That entry was written some years after the sight and before painting The Scream in 1893 but the moment stayed with him because his vision of the sky caused him to “tremble with pain and angst” and he felt he heard his “…scream passing endlessly through the world.”  For historians those fragment of memory proved of interest and in his book Krakatoa:The Day the World Exploded (2003), detailing the 1883 eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa, Simon Winchester (b 1944) connected the “blood red” Norwegian sky with the fiery sunsets created by the ash from the explosion circulating the planet, high in the atmosphere.

Krakatoa: The Day the world exploded.

The idea of a link between the catastrophic geological event and the painting had long intrigued art historians who understood such a sight would have appeared “surreal”, decades before the surrealism movement became established and that it was a natural phenomenon is well-supported by theoretical modelling.  Between 20 May-21 October 1883, Krakatau, a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait, erupted, the “main event” happening on 27 August, during which over two-thirds of the island and its surrounding archipelago was destroyed, the remnants subsequently collapsing into a caldera (in volcanology, a large crater formed by collapse of the cone or edifice of a volcano).  The event created a large tsunami which, much diminished, reached the Atlantic and it’s believed that day’s third explosion was history’s loudest known sound.  What Edvard Munch is thought to have seen is the evening light of the sun being colored by the millions of tons of sulfur dioxide and volcanic dust blasted high into the atmosphere, circulating there for years including over Oslo when the artist was taking his walk.  Nor was he wholly wrong in suggesting “a scream passing” because such was energy generated by the explosion, the acoustic pressure wave circled the globe at least three times.

Bipolar

Bipolar (pronounced bahy-poh-ler)

(1) Having two poles, as the earth.

(2) Of, relating to, or found at both polar regions.

(3) Characterized by opposite extremes in opinions, nature etc.

(4) In electronics, relating to a semiconductor device, such as a transistor, that exploits the electrical characteristics of contact between two substances, one with an inherent positive charge, the other with an inherent negative charge.

(5) In electric power distribution, a power transmission line having two direct-current conductors in opposite polarity.

(6) In physics, a region of magnetic flux having two distinct poles

(7) In psychiatry, of, relating to, or having bipolar disorder (a major mood disorder that is characterized by episodes of mania and depression; once known as manic-depression.

(8) In physiology, having two poles; used especially of nerve cells in which the branches project from two usually opposite points.

(9) In geopolitics, of or relating to an international system in which two states wield most of the cultural, economic, and political influence (ie two states with hegemonies exerted over their respective spheres of influence.  The companion terms are unipolar and multipolar and all are sometimes used by analogy in fields like commerce or sporting competition to reference instances of specific dominance.

1800–1810: The construct was bi- + polar.  Pole (in this context) was from the Middle French pole & pôle, from the Latin polus, from the Ancient Greek πόλος (pólos) (axis of rotation).  The –ar suffix was from Latin -āris (of, pertaining to) and was appended to nouns to create adjectives (it came increasingly to be appended to words of non-Latin origin).  The bi- prefix came directly from the Latin bi-, from Latin bis (twice) & bīnus (double), from the Proto-Italic dwi-, from the primitive Indo-European dwi- and was one of the sequence of Latin number prefixes (uni-, bi, tri etc).  In English, it can be confusing because it can used to mean either (1) two, pair, both, duo or (2) half.  In chemistry, the use meaning half has been discontinued.  In general use, the ambiguity remains, illustrated by the use when applied to measures of duration which can variously be interpreted as “once every two periods” or “twice every period”, the classic examples of which are this like biweekly, bimonthly, and biannual.  Style guides now often suggest choosing unambiguous forms such as “fortnightly” or, where no such elegant alternative exists, spelling it out explicitly (twice a month; every two years etc).  Using semi- as a prefix can work but is imprecise although acceptable if the meaning is in other ways made clear.

In English, as a clipping (a use of the prefix as a stand-alone word) of bisexual (used as both noun & adjective), the meaning was clear and effortlessly “bi” moved from LGBTQQIAAOP slang to the general vocabulary.  Potentially misleading however is bigender, a coining of LGBTQQIAAOP activists which became linguistically necessary when gender and sex were re-assigned as separate constructs.  It’s recommended it be used as the hyphenated bi-gender (to be consistent “bi-sexual” should probably also adopt the form) lest one might ponder if a bigend is LGBTQQIAAOP slang for something (and at this point one’s mind may wander) unbeknown to one.  Additionally in engineering, a big-end bearing in an internal combustion engine is the one located “big end” of the connecting rod and attached to the crankshaft.  Mechanics may use “bigender” (pronounced big-end-ah) as slang which in oral use won’t be confused with something pronounced as by-jen-dah but if transcribed, were the latter hyphenated, there’ll be no mystified mechanics.  Bipolar is a noun & adjective and bipolarization & bipolarity are nouns; the noun plural is bipolar.  

Lindsay Lohan, following Edvard Munch's (1863–1944) The Scream (1893), rendered by Vovsoft in comicbook style.  Much art has been analysed by those seeking insight into the mental health of the artist, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder two conditions frequently identified.  

The adjective bipolar dates from 1810 in the figurative sense of "of double aspect" and was by 1859 used in the literature of anatomy (having two processes from opposite poles) to refer to nerve cells while the sometimes hyphenated noun bipolarity (state of having two poles) emerged in 1834.  The earliest known instance of the now familiar use in psychiatry as a technical term to describe what was then known as manic-depressive psychosis appears to date from 1957 in a publication by German psychiatrist Karl Leonhard (1904-1988), noted in the history of the profession for his extensive (though now mostly forgotten) classification of psychotic illnesses (a nosology (the construct being nos- + -ology, from the Ancient Greek νόσος (nosos) (disease) + -λογία (-logia) (study of), the branch of medical science dealing with the classification of diseases)) although still used in structural linguistics is the system of classification of non-verbal communication.  As the term “manic-depression” ascended the linguistic treadmill (a process accelerated by the negative connotations which attached to the word because in popular literature and films manic depressives were often characterised as psychopathic murderers or other flavours or madness) “bipolar disorder” was positioned as a preferable term, the reason being that bipolar was separated from both the connotations of “manic depression” and the two elements (“manic” & “depression”), each loaded with negative associations.  Accordingly, in 1980, bipolar disorder replaced manic-depressive psychosis in the third edition (DSM-III) of the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  According to tracking by dictionaries, it was in the mid-1990s that bipolar (in the context of mental health) gained traction in general use and, inevitably, appeared on the linguistic treadmill although even forty-odd years on there’s little to suggest it has yet reached the level of opprobrium which might prompt the DSM’s editorial board to discuss the need for a replacement although their processes can take a while, the term “mental retardation” (long regarded in the community as offensive and in some cases misleading) not replaced by term “intellectual development disorder (intellectual disability)” until the release of DSM-5-TR (text revision) in 2022.

The bipolar world in 1980.  The geopolitical architecture of the Cold War (circa 1948-circa 1990) revolved around Moscow (the Warsaw Pact) and Washington DC (NATO).

Bipolar disorder was actually introduced to the DSM when the multi-axial system (Axis I to Axis V) was created:

Axis I: Clinical Disorders (including bipolar disorder)

Axis II: Personality Disorders and Mental Retardation

Axis III: General Medical Conditions

Axis IV: Psychosocial and Environmental Problems (stressors)

Axis V: Global Assessment of Functioning

This structure was modified with the release of DSM-IV-TR (2000) which, within the axis system, divided diagnoses and symptoms into sections or "decision trees," including which symptoms must be included for a diagnosis and which must not be present.  The sectional approach was carried over to the DSM-5 (2013) when the axis system was abandoned, replaced by 20 chapters containing categories of related disorders of which “Bipolar and Related Disorders” is one, others including Anxiety disorders, Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, Depressive disorders, Feeding and eating disorders and Personality disorders.  Within its category, bipolar disorder was subject to some refinements, including those reflected in other areas (such as objectum sexuality) that attempted to reduce the medicalization of behaviour that although statistically aberrant, was part of the normal human condition.  Childhood bipolar disorder for example, although long well-defined and accepted as a diagnosis, was effectively rolled into a new category of depressive disorders called disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), reflecting the concern that the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder was being inconsistently and overly applied to behaviour better understood as variations of childhood irritability.  Possibly too, the editors may have been influenced by work in labelling theory which suggested the early appearance in an individual’s medical history of conditions such as depression or bipolar disorder could have life-long consequences.

In the DSM-5, the diagnostic sub-categories of bipolar disorder were extended to seven:

(1) Bipolar I disorder

(2) Bipolar II disorder

(3) Cyclothymic disorder

(4) Substance/medication-induced bipolar and related disorder

(5) Bipolar and related disorder due to another medical condition

(6) Other specified bipolar and related disorder

(7) Unspecified bipolar and related disorder

Other changes included (1) the elimination of “mixed episode”.  Instead, a manic, hypomanic, or depressive episode can be specified as “with mixed features” a specifier with its own DSM definition. (2) The bipolar II diagnosis in the DSM-IV (1994) excluded a history of mixed episodes and this exclusion has been removed, something many long advocated. (3) There was a standardization of the text.  The word “abnormally” was not included in the DSM-IV criterion A for a hypomanic episode, while it was in criterion A for a manic episode; in DSM-5 the same language is used for both, the full criteria for the two distinct types of episodes thus closer together. (4) Each type of bipolar disorder gained specifiers (such as “with mixed features”, “with anxious distress” & “with rapid cycling”) which serve further to clarify the illness.

The DSM-5-TR was released in 2022 and among the changes were amendments to the section covering disorder.  Criterion B in bipolar I disorder was refined to make explicit that a manic episode can't be “superimposed on” (ie bolted-onto to run simultaneously with) an existing diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, delusional disorder, or other specified or unspecified psychotic disorder.  A similar procedural clarification was made to criterion C for bipolar II.  The specifiers indicating the severity of a manic episode were also updated.  Under DSM-5, the bipolar severity specifiers were mild, moderate, and severe which certainly made sense when labeling depressive episodes but when of clinical significance, that was less helpful when categorizing manic episodes because, in the nomenclature of the DSM, “mild” indicated “no impairment in functioning” whereas manic episodes inherently impaired function.  The specifiers for manic episodes accordingly were updated in the DSM-5-TR to (1) Mild (the manic episode meets the minimum symptom criteria), (2) Moderate (the manic episode causes a very significant increase in impairment and (3) Severe (the patient needs nearly continual supervision to prevent harm from being done to themselves and/or others).

2:365 by Kim Rask & Missy Douglas (2014), Ucki Ood, pp 400 (ISBN-100615950620).  A collection of 365 works painted in 2013 as a document of bipolar disorder.

First diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 19 while a student of art at Cambridge, Dr Missy Douglas (b 1977) in 2013 undertook for that year, each day to paint a canvas which would express her feelings at that moment.  To ensure the works reflected her condition rather than the effects of medication, during this year she went un-medicated, hoping the paintings would more accurately reflect the highs and lows of bipolarity.  When going to sleep each evening, Dr Douglas had no idea how she would feel the next morning, some days ecstatic, some days depressed.  Although the change in name to bipolar was probably helpful, Dr Douglas' experiment does illustrate why “manic depression” was so evocative of the condition.  Interestingly, on not one day was a painting not completed, not does the set include a blank canvas or one simply black or rendered otherwise monochromatically.  What this indicates would be something to ponder but is perhaps indicative of how a spectrum condition can manifest, Dr Douglas presumably a high-functioning bipolar.  For a BBC piece, Dr Douglas provided brief notes for six of the works:

Day 5: “I was really anxious, angry and feeling trapped.”

Day 177: “I was really in a dark place here. I was completely in a depressive phase.”

Day 236: “I was burying feelings and my emotions were all over the place.  Very turbulent.”

Day 242: “I was at the height of mania here, but there was a massive wave of white depression heading towards me.”

Day 314: “Mania.  I was buzzing and everything was technicolor and beautiful.  I was flying and felt invincible."

Day 359: “Christmas Day 2013.  I was feeling very depressed yet I completely compartmentalised and concealed it.  The twinkly forced jollity hid the sadness.”

Groovy

Groovy (pronounced groo-vee)

(1) Of, pertaining to, or having grooves.

(2) Set in one's ways (obsolete).

(3) Inclined to follow a fixed routine (obsolete).

(4) Cool, neat, interesting, fashionable, highly stimulating or attractive; excellent. (used in the 1940s and then more frequently in the 1960s and 1970s; now dated but often used ironically or to suggest an association with the 1960s counter-culture (hippies, psychedelia and all that).

(5) A programming language for the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), now under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation.

(6) In music (jazz), as a professional compliment with the meaning "performing well (without grandstanding)”.

(7) In music, melodious, danceable; particularly of a riff or bassline.

1853:  The construct was groove + -y.  Groove was from the Middle English grov, grove, groof & grofe (cave; pit; mining shaft), from the Old English grōf (trench, furrow, something dug), from the Proto-Germanic grōbō (groove, furrow”, from the primitive Indo-European ghrebh- (to dig, scrape, bury).  It was cognate with the Dutch groef & groeve (groove; pit, grave), the German Grube (ditch, pit), the Norwegian grov (brook, riverbed) & the Serbo-Croatian grèbati (scratch, dig).  The earlier form in Old English was grafan (to dig) and from here there’s a lineal descent to groove and, at some point, a fork led to “grave”.  The –y suffix was from the Middle English –y & -i, from the Old English -iġ (-y, & -ic”, suffix), from the Proto-Germanic -īgaz (-y, -ic), from the primitive Indo-European -kos, -ikos & -iḱos (-y, -ic).  It was cognate with the Scots -ie (-y), the West Frisian -ich (-y), the Dutch -ig (-y), the Low German -ig (-y), the German -ig (-y), the Swedish -ig (-y), the Latin -icus (-y, -ic) and the Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós); doublet of -ic.  Groovy is a noun & adjective, grooving is a noun & verb, groovier & grooviest are adjective, groover & grooviness are nouns and groovily is an adverb; the noun plural is groovies (though groovers is more common).  The standard comparative is groovier and the superlative grooviest but constructs like supergroovy, ultragroovy and hypergroovy have been seen and the The alternative spelling groovey is extinct.

Groovy was first noted in 1853 in the metal working trades as a literal descriptor of the surface texture of metals and evolved into the general sense of “of or pertaining to a groove” and oral (either a dialectic form or specific to metal working) use may pre-date 1853.   One colloquial figurative sense was "having a tendency to routine, inclined to a specialized and narrow way of life or thought", attested from 1882 and linked to the idea of a grove being “something permanent, static and unchanging”.  That sense died out and the next figurative use was something of the opposite.  The reason English never created ungroovy or nongroovy is there were already number of words adequately to convey the idea, the one most associated with the 1960s counter-culture being "square" which used to convey the quality of "someone honorable & upright".  It's possible the purloining of "square" was developed from the familiar "straightlaced" although the eighteenth century "squaretoe" was an epithet applied to disparage the "prim & proper"; this later form is thought unrelated to the hippies' use of "square".

Lou Reed, Metal Machine Music (1975).

Usually, to be “stuck in a groove” means much the same as “stuck in a rut” (in a settled or repetitive habit or course of action, especially one without a goal or purpose) but in one case, implemented literally, it was a deliberate artistic act.  In popular (sic) culture, Lou Reed (1942–2013) in 1975 released Metal Machine Music, either (1) to fulfil a contractual obligation to a record label with which he no longer wished to be associated, (2) to annoy critics and others he didn’t like, (3) as a piece of electronic music, (4) to win a bet with Andy Warhol (1928-1987) or (5) because he was suffering an amphetamine induced psychosis.  Known as MMM or 3M by fans and categorized by most as noise, drone, industrial or minimal, it’s about two hours of modulated feedback running at different speeds.  Despite the derision attracted at the time, it’s since built a cult following and has been performed live, one approving reviewer suggesting MMM is best understood as “…electricity falling in love with itself”.  The original release was a double album on twelve-inch vinyl and featured a “locked grove” on the final track meaning the noise endlessly would loop, theoretically forever.  This “stuck in a groove” trick couldn’t be done on the new medium of the CD (compact disc) but there were no complaints the omission detracted from the experience.

Groovers in the groove: Lindsay Lohan (right) DJing with former special friend, DJ Samantha Ronson (left).

The slang sense in the context of jazz music is from circa 1926 and was used by musicians to convey a professional compliment: "performing well (without grandstanding)”.  This seems to have migrated to adopt its modern sense to describe something wonderful in the late 1930s although it even then tended to be confined to the young and, outside of parts of some US cities, doesn’t appear to have enjoyed wide use.  It became widely popular in 1960s youth culture which spread world-wide, including beyond the English-speaking word.  Despite falling from favor after hippiedom passed its peak, it’s never actually gone extinct and occasional spikes are noted, triggered usually by some use in pop-culture.  Generally though, it’s been out of currency since the 1970s although still used ironically.

Groovy.  1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda with Mod Top, the only one ordered with the Mod Top option; it must at the time have seemed a good idea.  The one-off Ivy Green Hemi 'Cuda was stolen in 2016 and has never been recovered.

The psychedelic Mod Top was a Plymouth factory option in 1969-1970.  Ordered mostly in yellow, the flower power themed material was supplied by the plastics division of Stauffer Corporation, chosen for their expertise in the manufacture of durable, brightly patterned tablecloths and shower curtains.  The company, dating from 1907, remains in family ownership and still operates but it’s not known if it's one of the Stauffer families which are branches of the Staufer Dynasty (known also as the Hohenstaufen) which provided a number of medieval German kings who were crowned also as Holy Roman Emperors.

1969 Plymouth advertising: Barracuda (left) & Satellite (right).  The copy called the motif a "pop print", an allusion to "pop art" which recently had emerged as a trend in the art market.

In the curious way Chrysler allowed its divisions to operate in the era, Dodge, Plymouth’s corporate stable-mate, offered a similar option called the Floral Top, the material for which was supplied by another company.  The companion to the Mod Top roof was matching vinyl paisley upholstery and floor mats which could be mixed and matched, some cars built with one but not the other although, despite it being possible, no convertible buyers (who by definition couldn’t tick the vinyl roof box) opted for the hippie interior.  Technically, Stauffer used exactly the same design technique used when applying flowers to tablecloths and shower curtains: endlessly repetitive patterns which repeat every 3-4 feet (900 mm-1.2 m), the same model used with most fake finishes for surfaces which emulate natural substances (granite, marble, timber etc).

1969 Dodge Daytona with Floral Top.

Few finds attract collectors like factory one-offs, genuine rarities produced by a manufacturer despite officially not being available in that configuration.  The 503 1969 Dodge Daytonas (produced only because NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) imposed a minimum build number in their homologation rules) included some extreme aerodynamic modifications and have long been sought-after, trading these days well into six figures.  It does seem Dodge may have made one with the Floral Top, despite it not being a Daytona option although the evidence for it being a genuine factory product is undocumented, based instead on oral testimony.  Many experts do seem convinced and, during the era, such "unicorns" did exist.

One's three choices to display one's grooviness.  Big florals definately are not "paisley" but the tag caught on and has stuck.  

1970 Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda with Mod Top, the logo's groovy lettering part of the vibe.  Almost all this colorful vinyl was glued on during the administration of Richard Nixon (1913-1994; POTUS 1969-1974) who, although a competent pianist, was not at all groovy.

It’s not known how many survive, many a vinyl roof being removed or replaced with a solid color after the hippie vibe became unfashionable but some with the option have become collectables and reproduction vinyl is now available for those wanting the vibe back; the closer to the original condition a car can be rendered, the higher the value.  Although in restorations NOS (new old stock) parts usually are preferred to reproductions, because of the nature of the material, a pre-cut mod top or Floral Top from 1969-1970, still unopened in its immaculate, original packaging, would likely crumble upon touch so the newer stuff is the only viable choice.  The nature of the unfortunate accessory is such that it’s never going to influence the price to the extent a rare or desirable engine or transmission might but, for the originality (or at least the replication) police, these things are an end in themselves.  Available in mixes of green, yellow & blue for both the roof and interior, 2,792 freaks ordered these in 1969 but by 1970, only 84 repeated the mistake, one of whom specified a Mod Top for their Hemi 'Cuda.  Altamont had prevailed over Woodstock; the 1960s were over.

Mod Top (Plymouth) & Floral Top (Dodge) production count, 1969-1970.

There however the patterned roof didn't die although the grooviness did.  Despite it being the intermediate-sized Satellite which in 1969 which attracted the most mod-toppers, Plymouth the next year restricted availability to the pony cars and demand proved embarrassingly modest.  Not discouraged, the factory in mid-year offered a somewhat subdued variation on their full-sized line, the Fury, a flourish perhaps surprising given the evolution of the market segment.  Until the 1960 model year, the “big three” (General Motors (GM), Ford & Chrysler) had each produced essentially one mainstream line (low-volume specialties such as the Thunderbird and Corvette just lucrative niche players).  Beginning in the 1960 model-year, that would change, increasing prosperity encouraging and the growing success of smaller imports compelling Detroit’s big three to introduce first compact, then intermediate and later sub-compact ranges, what came to be called the full-sized cars having grown just too big, heavy and thirsty for many.

1969 Plymouth Barracuda with Mod Top (one of 937).  Given it was 1969, one unappreciated thing about a Mod Top was that upon first looking into one, even if one had not dropped some acid, one might assume one had.

The market spoke and the full-sized ranges, while remaining big sellers, gradually abandoned the high-performance versions which had once been the flagships, the smaller, lighter intermediates, pony cars and even the compacts much more convincing in the role.  By 1970, the big cars ran a gamut from stripper taxi-cabs to elaborately blinged-up luxury cars (which grew so big they came later to be dubbed "land yachts") but attempts to maintain a full-sized finger in the sporty pie was nearly over.  By 1970, only Ford still had a four-speed manual gearbox on the option list for the big XL (though it seems none were built) and Chrysler, although the lusty triple-carburetor 440 cubic inch (7.2 litre) V8 could be had in some Fury models, it was available only with the TorqueFlite automatic.  All of GM's (General Motors) full-size machines were by then definitely heavy cruisers.

1970 Plymouth Gran Coupe with Paisley vinyl roof.

But Plymouth clearly believed the Fury still offered some scope in other stylistic directions; it was after all a big canvas.  Mid-season, quietly slipped into the range was the "Gran Coupe", based on the Fury II two-door sedan but bundled with a number of otherwise extra-cost options including air conditioning and the then fashionable concealed headlights.  What was most obvious however, was the paisley theme, a patterned vinyl roof with matching upholstery, most Gran Coupes finished in a newly created copper tone paint although other colors were available.

1971 Rover P5B 3.5 Coupé.

The Gran Coupe was retained for 1971 but the coachwork was the more elegant pillarless hardtop in both two and four-door versions, the latter still known as a coupe.  That attracted criticism from those who had come to associate the word exclusively with two-door bodywork but in the UK Rover had since 1962 offered a four-door “Coupé” although they did cut the P5’s roof-line a little, a nod to the history of the word coupé (from the French coupé, an elliptical form of carosse coupé (cut carriage), past participle of couper (to cut)).  Shamelessly, Plymouth ignored the etymology and invented the un-cut coupe, clearly believing gluing on some paisley vinyl vested sufficient distinction.  The factory also imposed some restraint on buyers: although the Gran Coupe was available in a variety of colors, only if the standard interior trim (tan) was chosen would the paisley patterned upholstery be available and, befitting the likely ownership of the full-sized line, the vinyl roof was subdued rather than the swirling psychedelia of the groovy Mod Top’s swirls.  In the twenty-first century the “four door coupe” became a thing but although Rover seems to have been the first to apply a “Coupé” badge, the now familiar motifs were seen in some coach-built four-doors during the inter-war years, the big Duesenbergs and Buccialis among the most memorable.

Following Rover: 1971 Plymouth Fury III Gran Coupe (four-door hardtop).  There are four door coupes because Plymouth said so.

It was for years the end for any exuberance in the full-sized lines.  Although the option of a four-speed manual transmission appeared in the early catalogues for the 1970 Ford XL, none were built and Chevrolet had already removed the SS option for the Impala; big engines would remain, indeed, they would grow larger but power would drop, the full-sized lines of both now hunting those wanting cut-price Lincolns and Cadillacs rather than something in the spirit of the old "letter series" Chrysler 300s.  Plymouth had already abandoned the Mod Top after lackluster sales in 1970 and the more dour paisley vinyl lasted only another year, consigned to history with the triple-carburetor 440.  Happily, decades later, big-power engines would make a comeback but fortunately, the paisley vinyl roof remained forgotten.

Burgundy vinyl (code V1M), before & after sun exposure.

Chrysler's use of the term "paisley" was actually a bit misleading; only some of the groovy vinyl was a true paisley but the marketing people liked it so applied it liberally, even to fabric with big yellow sunflowers.  To this day, in the collector market, the universal description is "paisley".  Customers didn't however didn't long share the enthusiasm felt by the sales department and by mid-1970, Chrysler realized they had a lot of bolts of un-wanted paisley vinyl in the warehouse; this was some time before just-in-time (JIT) supply chains.  The inspired suggestion was to dye the vinyl a dark purple (officially called "Burgundy," code V1M) and offer it only with the "Sparkling Burgundy Metallic" (code GM8) paint which was exclusive to the Imperial line, the theory being the same as used with hair-dyes: dark can always cover light.  Some testing verified the theory and in September 1970 the 1971 models began to be shipped to dealers, some cars parked outside... in direct sunlight.  Almost immediately, the now burgundy vinyl began to fade.  If nothing else, the incident illustrated the point made by Austrian–British philosopher Sir Karl Popper (1902–1994): What is critical in theories is not proof but disproof; it matters not how how many bolts of vinyl satisfactorily can be dyed purple, if just one fades in the sunlight then it's a bad idea.  Option code V1M was withdrawn in November, making it one of the industry's shorter lived.  A few actually were sold with the purple fabric still attached, later to fade, at which point most owners took up the offer for a re-cover in white or black vinyl but at least one (which must have spent the decades protected from the ultra-violet) still exists as it left the factory.

Prototype 1967 Chevrolet Camaros.

Chrysler wasn’t the only US manufacturer to offer a patterned vinyl roof, Mercury for a single season in 1970 having houndstooth available for the Cougar and even GM flirted with the idea before thinking better of it.  Hidden away in GM’s vast historical archive before being published early in the twenty-first century were photographs of the patterned vinyl being contemplated for the 1967 Chevrolet Camaro’s debut in late 1966.  Chevrolet seems to have produced prototypes with both paisley and houndstooth vinyl and intriguingly, also pictured were (presumably functional) side mounted exhaust pipes, exiting under the rear of the door.  Like the Camaro’s triple carburetor option (cancelled late in the planning process), neither the patterned vinyl nor the side pipes reached production, the latter remaining exclusive to the Corvette although even on the sports car they didn't see the next decade.

1970 Ford Mustang Grandé in New Lime Metallic with Ivy Green Corinthian Vinyl & Houndstooth Cloth trim with Houndstooth vinyl roof in green & black.

Although the term "houndstooth" had come into use only as late as 1936, it was a very old patter and not really "groovy"; it was associated more with the coats and hats respectable ladies might don for church.  It must therefore have seemed a good choice for the "non-groovy" Mustang introduced late in 1969 as a 1970 model.  With the Boss 302 & 429 made available for serious racers and the Mach 1 covering those who just wanted to look serious or do their racing a quarter-mile at a time, the Mustang Grandé was spliced in as a "luxury model" a market segment assessed by the industry as growing.  Ford decided to remove any ambiguity by spelling Grandé with a “é” (l'accent aigu (acute accent)), indicating the pronunciation should be Grahn-day, despite the spelling not being used in any language where “grande” exists.  As a "luxury" pony car, the Mustang Grandé was a harbinger for the trend of the 1970s as high-performance was, for many reasons, put on-held.  The Grandé used a standard mechanical specification but included a long list of “convenience” and “dress-up” items and was a success; it was the spiritual ancestor of the “Ghia” versions which for decades would be the most elaborately equipped Fords.  Surprisingly, despite being aimed at a demographic not interested in going fast, the Grandé could be ordered with almost any engine in the catalogue, including the 428 cubic inch (7.0 litre) Super CobraJet, designed for use on drag strips and some really were built so configured; only the unique Boss 429 was not available.  A vinyl roof was standard but the rarely ordered houndstooth option cost an additional US$28; so low was demand that it wasn't carried over to 1971.