Pathological

Pathological: involving or caused by a physical or mental disease.

That is, when we accuse someone of behaving ‘pathologically’ we are actually proffering reduced responsibility for their behaviour because of a disease.

What springs to mind is that this is yet another example of how we humans avoid responsibility by blaming the ‘bad other’, in this case a ‘disease’.

Two extreme cases come to mind: one, a friend who takes drugs for the bipolar conditions, and another that has made a habit of cutting the grass of (what are now) former friends and lovers.

I can’t help but think, as we get more and more sophisticated in our social structures and behavioural expectations, that a larger fraction of people will either not be able to fit in, or if they do, they will do so quite unhappily.

They just don’t have the training, the wherewithal, or the will.

Which is to say, we collectively are our very own ‘bad other’.

It would be quite reasonable to suggest that those that do fit in to society are therefore doing so quite pathologically.