Word: kleptein
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Dates: during 2002-2002
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Nineteenth century psychiatrists coined a term for the irresistible impulse to swipe: they called it kleptomania, from the Greek kleptein, to steal. It was applied after the fact to Jane Austen's aunt, who was tried in 1800 for pocketing fancy white lace. By the 1920s Freudian psychologists, always attuned to underlying sexual drives, were comparing the rush from a successful filch to the pleasure of an orgasm. Experts today are more inclined to compare recreational larceny to thrill-seeking behaviors like bungee jumping or to addictions like drug abuse or compulsive gambling...
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