Dar158.Html

IN SLOVAK 158 (218)
Projective lexicon of the Russian language October 15, 2006

Series "Words about language" (6)
Topic of the week: words with basic grapho-

In the Russian language, there are three known words with the primary principle grapho (Greek grapho - I write): graphology (the science of handwriting), graphomania (morbid addiction to writing) and its antonym graphophobia - obsessive fear, fear of writing.
This issue offers a number of more words with this basic principle.

graphopathy
graphopat, graphopatka
graphotherapy
graphospasm

logospasm

graphopathy (Greek grapho, writing + pathos, disease) - pathology of writing; mental and intellectual disorders, neuroses, obsessive states identified in writing.

Graphopat, graphopAtka - one or the other who suffers from graphopathy.

Graphopathy is a little-studied and terminologically not yet defined phenomenon. Graphopathy is not the same as graphomania. A graphomaniac is someone who is obsessed with the process of writing and writes continuously. A graphologist can write a little, but at the same time he reveals strange inclinations, “accentuations” of the soul or mind. Sometimes graphopathy finds a concentrated expression of ideopathy and sociopathy of a certain era. For example, in the Soviet era, the genres of denunciation, complaints, and slander flourished. In this case, the subject of a complaint or denunciation could be anything: white (“White Guard”) flowers on a neighbor’s window or a lack of works by V. I. Lenin in the Library. V. I. Lenin. A special genre of graphopathy is letters to the housing office, complaints about neighbors in a communal apartment. Soviet graphopathy is the subject of a sophisticated game in the art of conceptualism (for example, in the texts of Ilya Kabakov and D. A. Prigov).

Nowadays, many examples of graphopathy can be found in Internet forums and LiveJournal. Someone rhymes continuously. Some people can’t do without a bunch of vague terms. Some people express themselves entirely with interjections and exclamation marks. Someone gets stuck on indecent, swear words or, on the contrary, on sentimental, suffocating-spiritual... Such stuckness forms the essence of graphopathy : paranoidity or schizophrenia in the writing style itself, in the selection of words, in intonation, in associative series.

Let me give you an example of graphopathy : an email I received the other day (translation from English):

I love searching the internet for information about famous philosophers in the world, but now I couldn't find such information on the internet. So I would like you to show me all the information on the web pages so that I can read or download all this information to increase my knowledge.
I really hope to hear good news from you soon. Please inform me whether you can do this or not.
Yours sincerely,
[Name]

This is clearly not spam, this is a polite letter addressed specifically to me, with a delicate request to provide information about “famous philosophers in the world” - a request designed to be fulfilled, but in principle impossible to fulfill. One of the typical signs of graphopathy is the abstractness of address, the universality of wishes and requests that are incommensurate with the individuality of the addressee: a person is addressed as if he were God or an all-encompassing electronic resource. Moreover, in personal behavior a graphopath may be quite adequate, but as soon as he switches to written speech, something painful appears. Perhaps the very artificial situation of writing, abstracted from the specifics of live communication, encourages blurred, inarticulate, deranged writing. This convention of writing is reinforced on the Internet, where the writer is often abstracted from his own personality.

Why do you go to these forums? There are only unfortunate graphopaths there !
Every famous writer little by little accumulates an archive of graphopathy : letters from readers and admirers, which he loves to read out loud to friends with an infectious laugh.
on the Internet Let's open a museum of graphopathy , a cabinet of curiosities for writing - collect characteristic samples (anonymous, of course), carry out a classification, sort them into categories... Maybe this look in the mirror will bring some sense to many writers?

graphotherapy - healing by writing; writing and writing as a way to maintain mental health and balance.

The term "graphotherapy" occurs (extremely rarely) in the sense of the physical activity of drawing and inscribing letters with the aim of recognizing and changing unwanted
character trait. We offer a broader understanding of graphotherapy as a mental mechanism of self-healing, which is effectively manifested in literary activity.

Why reprimand yourself in front of a psychotherapist and pay him just to be heard, when you can express yourself to the Absolute Reader, the humanity of the future. Heal yourself with the Word! This is graphotherapy .
He needs to sit at his desk for at least two hours every day. Without this graphotherapy , he is internally destroyed.
Why are there so many neurotic writers? It would be more correct to ask: why do many neurotics become writers and artists? Precisely because they need healing. Graphotherapy , art therapy . “Singing heals a sick spirit” (E. Baratynsky).

Graphospasm is a violation of the psychological mechanism of writing, a disorder of writing ability.

The word graphospasm occurs (very rarely) in the meaning of a physiological disorder of the muscles of the hand that control the writing process. Medical synonyms: “writer’s cramp, spasmus scriptorius, graphospasmus, mogigraphy, writer’s cramp.” We propose a significantly different, mental meaning of the term.

Graphospasm is when you don’t write: you want to, but you can’t, or: you need to, but you don’t want to. Almost everyone, except perhaps one hundred percent graphomaniacs, is familiar with this state of creative impotence, which can last an hour, a day, a month, and years.

Why are you sitting and being bored? You have to hand in your essay tomorrow! - I have graphospasm .

I'm so angry! - it seems that impotence would be better than this damned graphospasm .
Graphospasm is not only a psychological, but also a social phenomenon. In the 1920s - 1930s, both O. Mandelstam and B. Pasternak celebrated five years of silence and non-letters. Graphospasm is a state of the world when “not a single star speaks.”

With the same secondary principle - spasm, the following formation is possible:

logospasm (Greek logos, mind, thought, idea, concept, word) - loss of the desired word, thought, concept; convulsive and futile efforts of memory.

In the midst of a lecture, in the midst of a brilliant argument, he is suddenly overcome by logospasm - and he embarrassedly rubs his forehead with his palm.

What is it: random logospasms or the beginning of aging?

_________________________________________________________________
Aphorism

It is worth taking a good dictionary with you to a desert island - rather than even the greatest of literary works, because the dictionary does not impose anything on the readers and can be read in an infinite number of ways.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973), English poet and essayist, in his book. "The Dyer's Hand and other essays".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Memo

conscientious - loving to give advice (including unsolicited).

Our government was not just Soviet, but also very consultative . She gave advice to peasants on how to sow grain, to parents on how to raise children, to scientists on how to think scientifically.
Please note that conscientious people and conscientious people constitute two completely different groups that almost do not overlap. He who has a conscience does not trust himself too much and does not teach others how to live.

Announcement:
This year, M. Epshtein is running the “Philosophical” column in the Zvezda magazine.
comment." Three recent publications in this section:
" Toward the philosophy of age. The fractality of life and the periodic table of ages " (4, 2006).
" Towards the aesthetics of love. Talents. Genres. Styles " (6, 2006).
" About soulfulness " (8, 2006).
_________________________________________________________________

network project Mikhail Epstein's "The Gift of Words" has been published since April 2000. Every week, subscribers are sent several new words, with definitions and examples of use. These words are not in any dictionary, and yet they denote significant phenomena and concepts for which there has not yet been a place in the language and public consciousness. "Dar" also conducts discussions about the Russian language, discusses letters and suggestions from readers. “The Gift” can serve as a guide to word creation, an introduction to the world of linguistic fantasies and mental technologies. “The word controls the brain, the brain controls the hands, hands control the kingdoms” (Velimir Khlebnikov).

Subscribe to "Dar" your friends and acquaintances
Subscription form - in the same place as all previous issues

PreDictionary - a collection of English neologisms by M. Epstein.

Association of Word and Term Finders ( AIST ) is a linguistic community on LiveJournal.

Gramma. ru is a Runet language portal dedicated to the culture of written speech.