The best estimate of how many gamers are "pathological" about the way they play is just 3%, according to a 2011 meta-analysis of 33 studies.
What's more surprising is that, while it's generally known that the art schools of the past almost always had a professor of anatomy on their staffs, anatomical and pathological depiction seems to have had an influence on fine art in general.
But while in psychotic patients these traits are too pathological to allow creativity, in a healthy individual they can contribute towards brilliance and inspiration".
You see, Newcastle's atmosphere of almost pathological friendliness and good humour stems from one simple thing: all Geordies believe themselves blessed to have been born here.
Beyond the sheer graphic impact of so much disease, distortion and disfigurement, what distinguishes them is an acute paradox: here the styles and modes of bygone eras are used not to prettify people or create a picturesque landscape, but to render the pathological as clearly as possible with a view to instructing physicians.
The juxtaposition of styles of portraiture with such extreme pathological symptoms creates a bizarre sensation: it's rather like chancing upon a film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that features a graphic anal sex scene between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy.
While religious conservatives wring their hands in a gesture of concern, the black irony of the whole debacle is that their pathological fixation on sexuality stigmatises the very youth they ostensibly care for.
Johnson, in my view, is far too sensible to become the pathological anti-Brownites' sacrificial lamb by standing against the obvious winner; he will stand for the deputy leadership.
In pathological narcissism there is a complete lack of empathy towards those that rage destroys, such as the 149 others he killed.
