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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Doc C's first site gives mythomania.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There is a new novel out, Assumed Identity, by David Morrell, where, as a covert agent, the protagonist's skill for assuming identities and aliases becomes an obsessive/compulsive pathology. I'm wondering if there's a word for this pathological condition. Here's a publisher's synopsis of the book:
The protagonist is Brendan Buchanan. He also goes by other names - Potter, Crawford, Block, Davis - in fact, over two hundred others. A member of a special-operations so covert it may as well be run by ghosts, Buchanan is a master of impersonation, a specialist in assuming false identities. But now his unique gifts - and desperate pathology - threaten to destroy him. The beginning of his nightmare occurs in Cancun, Mexico, where Buchanan's latest alias is brutally unmasked. Racing through a torturous escape route, he is shocked to discover that his controllers will no longer give him a new identity. For the first time in eight years, he will have to be himself. But after spending so much time assuming different identities, he no longer knows who he is. Suddenly, he receives a mysterious postcard, a coded, unmistakable plea for help. Its source is Juana Mendez, a former partner who had posed as his wife six years earlier, countless missions ago. In his quest for Juana, Buchanan is thrust into a stark wilderness of mirrors and faced with a harrowing conspiracy. Yet he finds the unreadable maze of his own mind as dangerous as the harsh, chilling world that assails him from without. His partner in the search is Holly McCoy, a reporter whose beauty is matched only by her determination to penetrate Buchanan's multilayered psychological armor and write her subject's real story. Seeking one woman, while inexorably drawn to another, Buchanan relentlessly follows a seductive but deadly trail from Key West to New Orleans, from San Antonio to Mexico City. Ultimately, he will find the truth about Juana, and even the truth about himself - if he can survive.
(So, does anyone know of a term for this condition?)
The Only WO'N!
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Joined: Apr 2002
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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WELCOME, Thetes, and I love your profile!!!!
(Hev, will you please PM me on how to do those lovely colors, so I can join the welcome-in' committee?)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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will you please PM me on how to do those lovely colors...
There's a banned bridge in Brooklyn you can buy real cheap.
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Joined: Apr 2002
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I have not been able to find a "mania" about lying. Phronitistery did not have the coinage I now propose:
Lating for liar, lying = mendax, mendacis,mendacem.
So "mendacimania" might be allowed. Polishing by Latinists of greater proficiency welcome.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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oh no! dr. bill; Phrontistery failed you yet again?! :) as Faldage suggested above: mythomania - an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd(try it in OneLook)
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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and speaking of pathologies:
klebenleiben - a pathologic reluctance to stop talking about a certain subject
()
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Besides mythomania Doc C's first site has pseudomania. I missed it the first time after Searching on "lying" and getting mythomania. I found pseudomania whilst looking for the one about assumed identities.
And Dr. Bill, using Latin roots is cheating. Gotta keep it all in Greek, doncha know.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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>Besides mythomania Doc C's first site has pseudomania.
and it seems that I have inappropriately oppugned Phrontistery, as Doc C's first site is part thereof.
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