" monomania "

[Noun]  | "mono*ma*nia" | \ ˌmä-nə-ˈmā-nē-ə \

1: mental illness especially when limited in expression to one idea or area of thought

2: excessive concentration on a single object or idea

Origin: 1815 ;

 Borrowed from French monomanie, from mono- {see: |mono-|mon-} + -manie {see: |-mania|-mania};

  * Note : The term monomanie was introduced by the psychiatrist Jean-Étienne Esquirol (1772-1840). It is perhaps first used in print in the article that Esquirol wrote on démonomanie "the delusion of being possessed by evil spirits" in the Dictionnaire des sciences médicales, tome 8 (Dac-Des), Paris, 1814. In a later publication Esquirol recalled applying the term to "partial madness" "more than fifteen years ago" ("Il y a plus de quinze ans que j'ai proposer d'imposer à la folie partielle le nom de monomanie") ("Note sur la monomanie-homocide," in J.-C. Hoffbauer, Médecine légale relative aux aliénés et aux sourds-muets, translated by A.-M. Chambeyron, "avec des notes par MM. Esquirol et Itard," Paris, 1827). For further context see: Jan E. Goldstein, Console and Classify: The French Psychiatric Profession in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 2001).;

[Noun]  | "monomania"