Drapetomania

Quick meaning: Drapetomania is a noun meaning (historical) The desire of slaves to run away, viewed as a mental illness.

Meaning

(historical) The desire of slaves to run away, viewed as a mental illness.

More Meanings

1. (dated) An overwhelming urge to run away (from home, a bad situation, responsibility, etc.).

Example Sentences

Forbidding alcohol, eliminating visits to neighbors at night, and withholding adequate food, shelter, and clothing also were measures taken to prevent drapetomania.

Mark declined and moved into the dark cavern. Strobes and smoke created curtains of imminent light. "You viced up Marky?" said Nick. Faking something close to drapetomania, .

One of these is a supposed form of mental disease, termed by him "Drapetomania, which, like a malady that cats are liable to, manifests itself by an irrestrainable propensity to run away."

Over the years, psychiatrists have quite properly rejected many other "disorders" that reflected earlier cultural prejudices, such as drapetomania, lack of vaginal orgasm, childhood masturbation disorder, masochism, and nymphomania (Wakefield, 1992).

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include dipsomania, kleptomania, oenomania, choreomania, ecdemomania, cleptomania.

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