theomania

[thee-oh-mey-nee-uh, -meyn-yuh]

noun

1. a delusional mental illness in which a person believes that they are to be God or specially chosen by God, as to found a religious order.

theomania

/ ˌθɪəˈmeɪnɪə /

noun

1. religious madness, esp when it takes the form of believing oneself to be a god

Other Word Forms

• theomaniac noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of theomania¹

First recorded in 1850–55; New Latin; theo- + -mania

Example Sentences

Dæmonomania differs widely from the mental disease called Theomania.

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Theomania, thē-ō-mā′ni-a, n. a madman's belief that he himself is God, or that God dwells in him.—n.

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Theomā′niac, one who shows theomania.

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It seems evident, then, that all the phenomena of animal magnetism have been from an early period known to mankind under the various forms of divinatory ecstasy, demonopathy or witchmania, theomania, or fanatical religious excitation, spontaneous catalepsy, and somnambulism.

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It is plain, however, that the theopaths, as James calls them, or victims of theomania, to use the French phrase, will be of importance in this analysis because of the equivocal character of the emotions felt in cases of religious delusion.

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