pyromania
523 Views

GC: n

S: NCBI – https://goo.gl/Hpgaee (last access: 26 October 2017); PT – https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/pyromania (last access: 31 October 2017).

N: 1. Term composed of “pyro-” (word-forming element form meaning “fire,” from Greek pyro-) and “mania” (from Late Latin mania “insanity, madness,” from Greek mania “madness, frenzy; enthusiasm, inspired frenzy; mad passion, fury,”). Used in German in the 1830s.
2. Mental illness in which a person feels a strong wish to start fires.
3. Impulse-control disorder characterized by the recurrent compulsion to set fires. The term refers only to the setting of fires for sexual or other gratification provided by the fire itself, not to arson for profit or revenge. Pyromania is usually a symptom of underlying psychopathology, often associated with aggressive behaviours.
4. Pyromania usually first surfaces in childhood, and only a small percentage of adult fire-setters actually suffer from the disorder.
5. Firesetting has also been associated with repressed hostility, aggressiveness and destructive tendencies.

S: 1. OED – https://goo.gl/WJSpC2 (last access: 26 October 2017). 2. CD – https://goo.gl/5xxeHs (last access: 26 October 2017). 3 & 4. EncBritAS – https://goo.gl/AEVhKe (last access: 31 October 2017). 5. TERMIUM PLUS – http://www.goo.gl/w1STvs (last access: 31 October 2017).

SYN: firesetting, motiveless firesetting. (depending on context)

S: TERMIUM PLUS – http://www.goo.gl/w1STvs (last access: 31 October 2017)

CR: arsonist, fire, pyromaniac