Psychotic vs. Psychopathic

Red silhouette of a bold man

They aren’t the same. Going back to at least Hitchcock (one of my faves), who brought the muddy term “psycho” into the public psyche, conflated the definitions as if all are violent, and all “crazy” is crazy. I’m sure there are briefer answers out there for those wondering what’s the difference between psychotic and psychopathic. And even though SRSLY made it into the OED because of its widespread use, lay inaccurate uses of the term psychotic will likely not. Briefly in discussing how we got here, the words are interchanged because they sound alike, and are used commonly to describe

Is it Bipolar, or not?

Fractal Art

Jesse, a 27-year old guy comes into my office because he had a “rage” attack at his boss. He might lose his job. He’s overweight, not particularly self-conscious with a receding hairline and dressed like he’s still in college. He got upset when his boss criticized his work, so of course he lunged at him and punched. “But that was just my Bipolar.” No, it wasn’t. Because you don’t have Bipolar. Of course I don’t say that.  Directly challenging doesn’t often serve the situation or help them to understand what’s happening with them.  It would only put them on the