Pyromaniac - what does it mean?

Pyromania - what is it?

Pyromania in psychology is a mental disorder characterized by a desire to commit arson and derive pleasure from observing fire, such as a candle flame or a fire.

Translated from ancient Greek, the word “pyromania” means “passion for fire, attraction.” The first information about this violation appeared in 1824. However, almost 200 years later it remains completely unexplored.

According to statistics, pyromania most often occurs among representatives of the age category 14-30 years. Most of them are men. There are few pyromaniacs among women, only 0.4%.

Pyromania can develop as a separate disease or be a sign of other pathologies, such as schizophrenia or psychosis associated with the consumption of excessive amounts of alcoholic beverages.

What it is?

Pyromania got its name from the ancient Greek words πῦρ, which means “flame” and μανία – “madness”, “passion”. This is the name of a mental disorder, which belongs to the category of behavioral and desire disorders. Pyromania is a disease that manifests itself as an incredibly strong desire to commit arson and enthusiastically watch the fire blaze.

The term was first introduced into psychiatric practice in the 19th century, but the phenomenon itself was known long before that. Modern experts consider pyromania not only as a mental illness, but also from a legal point of view, as a direct violation of the law, a crime.

Psychiatrists know of cases where pyromaniacs experienced real sexual arousal at the moment of burning something, followed by release. This is called pyrolagnia.

Interesting Facts

In human history there have been many people suffering from pyromania. One of them is Herostratus. This man, who lived during the times of Ancient Greece, became famous for nothing other than his strange love of arson. He is responsible for the fire that burned down the Temple of Artemis, located in Ephesus.

Why he did this, Herostratus could not explain. According to some scientists, this was an attempt to become famous, at least for a few minutes. And the man received his share of glory. It came with the death penalty.

The Roman Emperor Nero also suffered from pyromania. Remember the story of how he burned Rome? The ruler watched the large-scale fire for a week, and when he realized what he had done, he placed all the blame on the Christians. This event provoked mass persecutions and pogroms.

Causes

Psychologists and psychiatrists have conducted a lot of research, thanks to which they have found that in almost 100% of cases, pyromania begins in childhood. But its manifestations gain strength in adulthood.

It is impossible to say unequivocally for what reasons the disorder develops. However, experts were able to identify a number of factors provoking its appearance:

1. Character type. In most cases, pyromaniacs do not know how to quickly adapt to changing life circumstances. This makes them very vulnerable to stress. In addition, they usually have low self-esteem and almost completely lack self-confidence, and have a highly developed inferiority complex. This is why such people look at the world around them through a negative lens. It turns out to be a vicious circle. They seem to not want to make contact with society, but at the same time they are in dire need of attention. Arson helps solve the problem. Even if it is fleeting, pyromaniacs still receive attention.
2. Authoritarian parenting. According to psychologists, most of those who suffer from pyromania were brought up in dysfunctional families. They were cruel, disrespectful and there was violence. Because of this, the child never learned to control himself, to restrain some destructive impulses.
3. Weak intellectual development. This factor is less common than others. Due to some diseases that reduce the level of intelligence (mental retardation, dementia, brain injuries, etc.), the pyromaniac simply does not understand what he is doing. He simply admires the fire, without even thinking about the destructive effect it brings with it.
4. Psychopathy. It is considered one of the main factors provoking the development of pyromania. At the same time, the pyromaniac is not limited to arson. He may be caught in theft, fraud, vagrancy and other illegal activities.

Causes of pyromania

Mental disorder is formed due to psychological trauma. A pyromaniac cannot control his impulses; he enjoys the flame. Sigmund Freud, a famous psychotherapist, believed that pyromania is a form of sexual disorder. In this case, the arsonist gets excitement from watching the fire.

Other psychiatrists are of the opinion that arson is a way of self-expression, a show of one’s strength. This may explain why the pyromancer tries to put out the fire.

Among other things, the development of pyromania goes back to childhood. Patients are often children from single-parent families. The appearance of the disorder in an adult is associated with instincts and drives. When diagnosed, there are more male pyromaniacs, and, as a rule, pyromania is a symptom in the clinic of schizophrenia.

The mechanism of development and symptoms of pyromania

The disorder does not form overnight. It goes through several stages of development:

1. First, a person has an obsessive thought that he needs to start a fire and admire the fire. There is no way to get rid of this desire.
2. Further, the patient admits that his idea can be realized. This improves his mood. Thus begins the thinking stage, which brings with it joyful anticipation.
3. Next comes the actual implementation of the plan or arson. At this stage, a person experiences unprecedented euphoria and a feeling of happiness. The amount of adrenaline and serotonin in the blood increases.
4. After the arson is committed, the stage of repentance begins. A person realizes that he has done something bad, and this makes him depressed. In order to get out of it, he needs a new portion of thrills. And so on in a circle.

Over time, the intervals between stages become shorter. During these intervals, pyromaniacs think about fire, fires. They watch films and news on this topic with unprecedented pleasure, and also discuss it with others. Moreover, they often see fires in their dreams.

If a person suffering from pyromania drinks alcohol, he becomes almost uncontrollable, which is why he is capable of impulsive actions. So, he can set fire to a house with people inside.

So, you can determine the presence of pyromania by the following signs:

1. Arsons set by patients have no purpose or motive and do not require profit or damage.
2. Everything happens spontaneously.
3. Thinking about an event causes a person to experience great excitement and anxiety.
4. Hyperactivity appears.
5. When observing the fire, the patient feels delight, pleasure, and sometimes excitement.

An unhealthy craving for fire also manifests itself in conversations, obsessive thoughts, and drawings.

Causes of mental disorder

Pyromania is a mental disorder that can develop in a person for a number of reasons:

• accumulation of negative emotions that require release;
• a feeling of powerlessness in the face of some life difficulty;
• experiencing constant humiliation from family members or peers in a team;
• low self-esteem;
• long-term loneliness.

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As a rule, people suffering from pyromania experience a feeling of inferiority and inadequacy in everyday life. Committing arson, a mentally ill person compensates for the lack of self-confidence through the flame: it seems to him that he controls the powerful energy of fire, admires the creation of his hands, admires the movement of tongues bursting with heat.

Attention! In the presence of a sexual mental disorder, men who have a passion for fire experience sexual satisfaction from the sight of playing flames, which is used by such patients as sublimation.

Scientists explain the predominance of men among pyromaniacs from a medical point of view by the presence of the male sex hormone, which pushes its owner to search for dangers and thrills that can increase the level of adrenaline in the blood.

Men predominate among pyromaniacs

Diagnosis and treatment

In order to confirm the diagnosis, the psychiatrist needs to find out whether the patient had motives for setting the fire. If there were, then we are talking about a crime. If he did it for the purpose of pleasure, there is a mental disorder.

A specialist can prove the presence of pyromania based on the following points:

1. There were more than 2 arson attacks. The man carefully thought through and planned each of them.
2. Immediately before and during the fire, the patient experienced a lot of positive emotions, ranging from joyful anticipation to indescribable delight.
3. There was no goal to take revenge on anyone or prove anything, or to hide what had been done. The desire to set something on fire was impulsive.

If there is a suspicion of schizophrenia, alcoholism and drug addiction, dementia or other personality disorders, additional diagnostics will be required, in particular CT and MRI.

The treatment plan is determined by the complexity of the course of pyromania. If the pathology does not develop against the background of any mental illness, but as an independent disorder, hospitalization will be required. The main difficulty is that patients often do not realize their condition and try hard to avoid treatment. In some cases it has to be done forcibly.

Treatment consists of 2 stages. The first is drug therapy. Medicines will help cope with impulsive desires to set something on fire. The most commonly prescribed drugs are antipsychotics, anxiolytics, and sedatives.

The second stage is psychotherapy. But we are not talking about passive methods. Attempts to change the patient’s beliefs will not end in anything. Therefore, the use of hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming is recommended. Psychocorrection is possible already at the recovery stage.

Treatment of pyromania

If you have problems with your relationship with fire and uncontrolled arson, you need to contact specialists in the field of psychology and psychotherapy, because only qualified medicine knows pyromania, what it is and how it should be treated.

Attention! It is extremely rare that insanity in relation to fire is the only problem of the human psyche; most often the disease is accompanied by other related problems, such as alcoholism, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis or drug addiction.

Treatment with a psychotherapist

In the most severe cases, drug treatment is used, with the use of antidepressants, hormonal drugs to restore healthy sleep, and synthetic sedatives. Common medications for relieving nervous excitability based on decoctions of medicinal herbs do not have any beneficial effect on the body of a pyromaniac.

Individual psychotherapy

A person’s desire to set fire to objects, materials, and buildings should be a reason for organizing individual therapy. The psychotherapist, through long and detailed conversations, will first identify the root of the problem, which became the impetus for the development of mania. The course of treatment will first be based on ridding the person of the hidden mental trauma that gave rise to the craving for fire, after which the specialist will work on getting rid of the addiction itself. This means that the pyromaniac himself is not able to get rid of the problem, the energy that he receives from the burning flame covers his entire consciousness, and it is extremely difficult to refuse this without outside help. In classes with a psychotherapist, tactics for the patient’s behavior under certain circumstances will be jointly developed. The doctor will teach you how to control your pathological desires using methods of distraction or suppression of instincts.

Important! Any maniac is a victim of severe psychological trauma, which has changed a person’s consciousness and made adjustments to his behavior. Pyromaniac is no exception.

With the modern rhythm of life, people do not have enough time to communicate with loved ones and pay attention to their concerns and difficulties. However, timely noticed oddities in the behavior of a teenager or a mature individual can prevent the development of any disease and avoid possible victims. You need to be able to find the strength to communicate even after the most difficult day of work, in order to be sure that children do not fall into bad company, and old people do not lose their minds when they are alone.