101 Words I Don't Use
solipsism
Copyright ©2009 by Paul  Niquettte.  All rights reserved.
Definitions of solipsism appear in 38 on-line dictionaries, some devoted to science or religion, others to psychology or cybernetics. With a pedigree traceable to Georgias of Leontini (483-375 BC) and a much venerated lineage (Sextus Empicus, Protagoras of Abdera, René Decartes), this entry would win ribbons at any word-show and ought to be welcome in anybody's conversational kennel, including mine.  I don't use solipsism -- but only because there is now a much better word to express what I want to say: I just coined solipsasm, along with 150 other words, by pure serendipity.
solipsasm  n. Behavior The spontaneous, seemingly uncontrollable, response to almost any stimulus, a verbal behavior characterized by expressions of egoistic self-absorption.   Latin slus, alone; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots + Latin ipse, self + -asm (whatever that means).
--Paul Niquette 101 Words I Don't Use
We are not talking philosophy here, and I don't think solipsasm qualifies as a medical condition either:  Whereas spasmodic dysphonia (quaking voice) may be a symptom of solipsasm in some cases and spasmodic nictating (winking) in others, I have observed neither. Excuse the oxymoron, but solipsasm is an exceptionally common behavior, exhibited in all ages and genders.  It is most reliably discernible by the first person singular at the beginning of conversational responses to any mentioned topic...
 
Mentioned Topic
       Solipsasmic Response
common cold
  "I haven't had a cold for two years."
construction on I84
  "I never take that freeway."
overcrowded prisons
  "I don't know anybody in jail."
peanut butter
  "I loath peanut buttah."
Fiddler on the Roof
  "I saw it on Broadway with Zero Mostel."
boredom
  "I never get bored."
watch stopped
  "I always wind my watch at bedtime."
instance of 'orthogonality'
  "I have no use for that word."
health care reform
  "I have never needed health insurance."
cup-hooks in a cabinet
  "I don't believe in cup-hooks." (see hate)
 
  -- Diary selections dating back five decades. PN
...each being a Non-Sequiturs of the Second Kind (a statement to which no answer seems appropriate or reasonable). For confirmation, try conducting surreptitious experiments at parties, business meetings, family gatherings.  You will see that invariably, after shifting the conversaton to himself or herself, the solipsast will have all but terminated the topic with an assertion of superiority -- as effectively as by the deliberate and audible release of pent-up flatulence.

Finally, there are some who might say that 101 Words I Don't Use is the ultimate in solipsasm.  I sure hope not.
 

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Epilog

Before starting this entry, I made an originality check for solipsasm at OneLook and got no hits.  Good news for an inveterate neologer!  I proceeded confidently with the first draft before thinking to search the World Wide Web for any instances of solipsasm.  Bing, Google, and Yahoo all came up with the same solitary page, a charming essay by Janet LaPierre entitled "The Music of What Happens."  I continued to hope that she had made a typographical error.  But no.  The word solipsasm appears at the end of a poem, undeniably featured for its rhyming with spasm.  Thus, I am forced to concede the coinage to Janet LaPierre.  Bummer.


 
solipsism  n. Science =Egoism n. 1. The doctrine of certain extreme adherents or disciples of Descartes and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, which finds all the elements of knowledge in the ego and the relations which it implies or provides for. 2. Excessive love and thought of self; the habit of regarding one's self as the center of every interest; selfishness; opposed to altruism. 


solipsism  n. Phlosophical Terminology Belief that only I myself and my own experiences are real, while anything else -- a physical object or another person -- is nothing more than an object of my consciousness. As a philosophical position, solipsism is usually the unintended consequence of an over-emphasis on the reliability of internal mental states, which provide no evidence for the existence of external referents [which presumably would include God -- ed]


solipsism  n. Psychology The doctrine that I alone exist. The self can know only its feelings and changes. There is only subjective reality. Solipsism is of importance to philosophy and psychology. Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the French mathematician, physicist and "father of modern philosophy", made solipsism a central issue in philosophy. Since solipsism has to do with how we learn and know, it concerns cognitive psychology. 


solipsism  n. Cybernetics The theory that locates reality entirely in the mind of the beholder. It specifically denies the existence of involuntary experiences with an outside world be it through direct perception of something or through vicarious experiences created in the process of communication.

-- Klaus Krippendorff, Dictionary of Cybernetics as cited at Principia_Cybernetica_Web


Spastic pseudoparalysis n. Medical [Searching among -asms finds only extreme syndromes, such as this one], better known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). A dementing disease of the brain. Symptoms of CJD include forgetfulness, nervousness, jerky trembling hand movements, unsteady gait, muscle spasms, chronic dementia, balance disorder, and loss of facial expression. 

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