3 ms·

No it doesn't. They use the proper medical term in the very same sentence, and continue to use psychogenic death except in a direct quotation from a doctor. Yo

by gph 8y ago

No it doesn't. They use the proper medical term in the very same sentence, and continue to use psychogenic death except in a direct quotation from a doctor. You have to be pretty damn anal to think using a colloquial term suddenly discredits all the other information in that article.

felipemnoa 8y ago
>>You have to be pretty damn anal to think using a colloquial term suddenly discredits all the other information in that article. There is some validity to his point though. Every time I read the word "give-up-itis" I reflexively feel negative feelings towards the article. It feels as if they are trying to be funny but not in a good way.
- waterhouse 8y ago
  I actually think "give-up-itis" is a more specific term than "psychogenic death", and is a better descriptor for what they're talking about. First, "psychogenic death" just means a death caused by the mind, without any specifics about how the mind caused it—e.g. if you think about something really scary and make your heart rate jump up and manage to give yourself a heart attack, it seems like that might qualify as a "psychogenic death" (I imagine there'd have to be other things wrong with your heart for that to tip you over the edge, but I'm not an expert); whereas this is about a mechanism involving some kind of apathetic mindset. Second, "psychogenic death" can only apply after the person is dead; it doesn't describe someone suffering from the same mechanism that hasn't killed them yet. Maybe "psychogenic decay"? (But again, that doesn't specify the mindset involved; perhaps someone who spends all their time experiencing pain, or anger, or something else would decay in a different way.) If they had to come up with a "medical" term for "give-up-itis", I might guess it'd be "apathetic psychogenic decay", or else some Latinized phrase. https://translate.google.com/#auto/la/disease%20of%20giving%20up https://translate.google.com/#auto/la/disease%20of%20giving%... yields "De morbo dare sursum", who knows. I also suspect this research is early enough that it doesn't make sense to choose an official term and commit to it yet. I am in favor of people not polluting the namespace of terms with things that, upon closer examination, should have been named something else.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  Not to mention the fact that "-itis" refers to swelling so it's not even a medically correct use of the suffix! ;)

by gph 8y ago

felipemnoa 8y ago

>>You have to be pretty damn anal to think using a colloquial term suddenly discredits all the other information in that article. There is some validity to his point though. Every time I read the word "give-up-itis" I reflexively feel negative feelings towards the article. It feels as if they are trying to be funny but not in a good way.

waterhouse 8y ago
I actually think "give-up-itis" is a more specific term than "psychogenic death", and is a better descriptor for what they're talking about. First, "psychogenic death" just means a death caused by the mind, without any specifics about how the mind caused it—e.g. if you think about something really scary and make your heart rate jump up and manage to give yourself a heart attack, it seems like that might qualify as a "psychogenic death" (I imagine there'd have to be other things wrong with your heart for that to tip you over the edge, but I'm not an expert); whereas this is about a mechanism involving some kind of apathetic mindset. Second, "psychogenic death" can only apply after the person is dead; it doesn't describe someone suffering from the same mechanism that hasn't killed them yet. Maybe "psychogenic decay"? (But again, that doesn't specify the mindset involved; perhaps someone who spends all their time experiencing pain, or anger, or something else would decay in a different way.) If they had to come up with a "medical" term for "give-up-itis", I might guess it'd be "apathetic psychogenic decay", or else some Latinized phrase. https://translate.google.com/#auto/la/disease%20of%20giving%20up https://translate.google.com/#auto/la/disease%20of%20giving%... yields "De morbo dare sursum", who knows. I also suspect this research is early enough that it doesn't make sense to choose an official term and commit to it yet. I am in favor of people not polluting the namespace of terms with things that, upon closer examination, should have been named something else.
SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
Not to mention the fact that "-itis" refers to swelling so it's not even a medically correct use of the suffix! ;)