Drapetomania

Being the pathological desire to seek freedom. See here. Drapetomania was coined as an explanation as to why plantation slaves kept trying to escape from the comfortable and stable environment provided to them by those better suited to run their lives. The condition was first diagnosed by Dr Samuel W. Cartwright in the 1850s.

In Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith satirically created the concept of "pathoheterodoxy", the mental illness that characterised Soviet dissidents and their failure to obey and conform. Anyone who has ever taken the ADHD checklist might wonder if Cruz Smith's idea is only satirical. (A mate of mine used to receive the Heritage Foundation newsletter Policy Review on a "Know Your Enemy" basis, in case you're wondering how I knew about that article. The checklist is at the end.)

So I'm wondering what they'll come up with to describe the Iraqis' pathological inability to lay down their arms before their liberators, their irrational insistence on resisting invasion and defending their country and their delusion that civilian deaths are the fault of the people actually dropping the bombs. "Patriophrenia", perhaps. Liberatiphobia. Local Sovereignty Disorder. Whatever it is, it appears to be widespread.