Graphomania is a medical condition where a person has an obsessive urge to write, which can result in incomprehensible language. It is not the same as graphorrhea, and its cause is subjective. The term can also be used figuratively to devalue a writer’s work or describe a group’s attitude towards writing.
Graphomania is a condition in which a person feels an obsessive urge or compulsion to write. When describing a medical condition, this urge is so severe that the affected individual may not even write in understandable or grammatical language or take much interest in the things he or she is writing. In other contexts, this term can be used to verbally devalue a writer’s work or to describe the attitude of a larger group. When used in this way, the term is somewhat figurative, describing an attitude towards writing rather than an actual compulsion to write.
As a medical condition, graphomania has no single cause. The subjective experience of a compulsion to write can also be quite personal. Whether a person suffers from graphomania or is simply heavily involved in writing is typically a matter of that person’s achievements and living conditions. An individual who writes compulsively but whose writing results in a long career as a successful novelist may suffer from this condition, but this is irrelevant, as the disease is diagnosed only in cases where it interferes with an individual’s life.
Technically, this condition is not the same as graphorrhea, which is a completely nonsensical outburst of written words. Graphomania is generally assumed to have a basis in sensible communication, the value of which may be subject to debate. Composing relatively coherent sentences in any language is the defining difference between these two conditions. Another related condition called typomania involves an obsession with seeing one’s name in print. This condition is significantly different in that it has a social aspect.
When a person who obviously does not suffer from a mental disorder is described as having graphomania, the expected effect is typically pejorative. This amateurish diagnosis is often used for a person who writes but is not a professional writer and never will be and also for people who are published but unqualified. The only purpose of using the term graphomania in this way is to devalue the work of the writer. In essence, accusing a person of having graphomania amounts to arguing that seeing value in that person’s handwriting is a symptom of mental illness.
This term is unfortunately highly dependent on the context for its definition. It is always associated with large amounts of writing, but in some cases it is not even applied to a single person. For example, a culture could be said to suffer from graphomania if, as a group, it permits the production and publication of large numbers of frivolous written works. Usages like this are perhaps more common than any medical diagnosis and must be interpreted with the attitude of the speaker in mind.
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