Poll of the Day > Why are psycho- and socio- the only pathics?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I mean, I guess there's telepathic, but that ain't real
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Came in to mention telepathics but....you read my mind.
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I guess there's homeopathics, but that's not the same context.... or is it?
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There are many different -paths. In the medical field, path is just a suffix meaning either 1) suffering from a disease (like psychopath or sociopath) or 2) a practitioner of a specified system of medicine like a naturopath or an osteopath.
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Keebs05 posted...

There are many different -paths. In the medical field, path is just a suffix meaning either 1) suffering from a disease (like psychopath or sociopath) or 2) a practitioner of a specified system of medicine like a naturopath or an osteopath.

Ya, I've become aware of many many examples of case 2 since, well, making the topic

...I'm moire curious about case 1.
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there are lots of -pathy ailments. ex:

myopathy: muscles
cardiopathy: heart
enteropathy: intestines
psychopathy: mind

the related word that encompasses the field of study is pathology, as well as the word pathological.
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Icoyar topic.
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Sahuagin posted...

there are lots of -pathy ailments. ex:

myopathy: muscles
cardiopathy: heart
enteropathy: intestines
psychopathy: mind

the related word that encompasses the field of study is pathology, as well as the word pathological.

Indeed. Technically speaking, we could call somebody with heart disease a "cardiopath." We just tend not to define and label people by physical illnesses the way we define and label people by mental illnesses (which, given that personality and identity are entirely mental, isn't necessarily an unreasonable thing), so that's never caught on as a label. Of course, the fact that "psycho-" and "sociopath" both refer to antisocial personality disorder and not more broadly to all psychological and social impairments (respectively) is a bit of a morphological faux pas, but that's English for you.

EvilMegas posted...

Icoyar topic.

Nope. I have unfulfilled curiosity.
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Are you curiopathic?
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SunWuKung420 posted...

Are you curiopathic?

...Yes. I like curios, except armoires.

>.>

Nah, but really - using Keebs05's post as a basis, I haven't heard of anything other than sociopath or psychopath when it comes to Case 1 and it seems to have a great difference from Case 2
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Lokarin posted...

.Yes. I like curios, except armoires.

But an armoire can be an excellent place to store and display one's accumulated curios.


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There are empaths if we're talking about psychological -paths

Lokarin posted...

Why are psycho- and socio- the only pathics? I mean, I guess there's telepathic, but that ain't real

If you want to get technical, sociopaths and psychopaths aren't real either.

Both are basically outmoded classifications within psychology that are no longer accepted, and they're very much frowned upon in a clinical sense. Serious psychologists will poo-poo you for using them.

That being said, it's never stopped me from using them because they're a useful shorthand when talking to people whose only understanding of psychology comes from pop culture.

I'll absolutely bite the face off anyone who says we only use 10% of our brains, though. Fuck those people.
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