pyromania, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌpʌɪrə(ʊ)ˈmeɪnɪə/, U.S. /ˌpaɪroʊˈmeɪniə/
Etymology: < pyro- comb. form + -mania comb. form, after French pyromanie (1833).
Psychol. and Psychiatry.
A mental disorder characterized by the impulse to set fire to things.
Pyromania was originally considered to be a form of monomania or moral insanity, but is now classified as an impulse control disorder.
1842 R. Dunglison Med. Lexicon (ed. 3), Pyromania, insanity, with an irresistible desire to destroy by fire.
1845 E. K. Hunt tr. E. Esquirol Mental Maladies 362 The young women of that country [sc. Germany] are, during the early period of adolescence, more subject to pyromania than young men.
1867 H. Maudsley Physiol. of Mind 273 Instances of..homicidal monomania, kleptomania, pyromania, and suicidal monomania.
1937 Times 7 Oct. 11/2 Mr. A. Lawson-Walton..said that there was no evidence of spite.., and it seemed that the accused had a kind of pyromania and delighted in making fires.
1976 A. MacLean Golden Gate x. 211 Sheer pyromania, that's what it is.
1997 N. Dodman Cat who cried for Help 195 The list of these putative obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders..includes conditions such as pyromania, compulsive gambling, and trichotillomania.
Derivatives
pyroˈmanic adj. of or relating to pyromania.
1926 J. I. Suttie tr. S. Ferenczi Further Contrib. Psycho-anal. xxxi. 258 There were quite a number [of cases] in which incendiaries set fire to their beds, as though to indicate the..enuristic primitive source of their pyromanic character trait.
1988 L. Blair Ring of Fire iii. 84 This left just three hours before darkness in which to follow and film the culminating procession to the burial-cliffs, and to return..to cover whatever pyromanic tendencies we might have managed to rekindle there.
1999 Geogr. Rev. 89 344 Incidents of arson by unemployed firefighters who seek work, and the pyromanic activities of demented individuals.
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