Abstract

BENTO, Victor Eduardo Silva. Toxin and addiction compared to passion and toxicomania: etymology and psychoanalysis. Psicol. USP [online]. 2006, vol.17, n.1, pp. 181-206. ISSN 1678-5177.

From a psychoanalytical point of view, the etymology of “toxin” and “addiction” was compared to “passion” and “toxicomania” etymology. We concluded: 1 st- “toxin” and “toxicomania” mean a chemical substance which attacks the organism; 2 nd- “Passion” and “toxin” original etymological meanings are similar: “passion like passive physical pain”, in Aristoteles and Christ, reminds the “toxin” in the dart used by the barbarians before the 2 A.D. in the war attack, the passive physical suffering by someone attacked; 3 rd- “toxicomania” comes from the medical domain, at the end of the 19 th century, meaning “degeneration”, “immorality” and “passion”; 4 th- We found the meaning of paradox in “toxin”, “toxicomania” and “passion”; and 5 th- In the “addiction” coming from the Roman empire as “enslavement by legal determination to pay for some debt” we found the old Greek meaning of “passion as enslavement, passive suffering, submission to an action from the outside”.

Keywords : Toxin; Addiction; Passion; Psychoanalysis; Etymology.

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