–adjective
1. Also, fag⋅i⋅dem⋅i⋅cal. (of a mental disease) affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent or natural.
2. extremely prevalent; widespread.
–noun
3. a temporary prevalence of a mental disease that was removed from the
DSM in 1973: In 1973, the weight of empirical data, coupled with changing social norms and the development of a politically active gay community in the United States, led the Board of Directors of the
American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (
DSM). Some psychiatrists who fiercely opposed their action subsequently circulated a petition calling for a vote on the issue by the Association's membership. That vote was held in 1974, and the Board's decision was ratified.
Subsequently, a new diagnosis,
ego-dystonic homosexuality, was created for the
DSM's third edition in 1980.
Ego dystonic homosexuality was indicated by: (1) a persistent lack of
heterosexual arousal, which the patient experienced as interfering with initiation or maintenance of wanted heterosexual relationships, and (2) persistent distress from a sustained pattern of unwanted
homosexual arousal.
4. a rapid spread or increase in the occurrence of
something unnatural that could lead to the end of the human species: a fagidemic of men or women.
Origin:
2008