Abstract

Graphomania (from Greek "γραφειν" — writing, and μανία — insanity), also known as scribomania, refers to an obsessive impulse to write. When used in a specific psychiatric context, it labels a morbid mental condition which results in writing rambling and confused statements, often degenerating into a meaningless succession of words or even nonsense and called then graphorrhea (cf. hypergraphia). The term 'graphomania' was used in the early 19th century by Esquirol and later by Eugen Bleuler, becoming more or less common. Graphomania is near condition to typomania - obsessiveness with seeing one's name in publication or with writing for being published, excessive symbolism or typology.

Outside the psychiatric definitions of graphomania and related conditions, the word is used more broadly to label the urge and need to write excessively, professionally or not. Max Nordau, in his attack of what he saw as degenerate art, frequently used the term 'graphomania' to label the production of the artists he condemned (most notably Richard Wagner or the French symbolist poets )

Milan Kundera ironically explains proliferation of non-professional writing as follows: