NON-ISM

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society) A policy or lifestyle of avoiding all activities and substances (foods, drink, drugs, etc.) which might be harmful to one's mental or physical health; an extreme form of total abstention. Etymology: Formed by combining the prefix non- 'not' with the suffix -ism to make a word which does not, strictly speaking, contain a root (but perhaps this emphasizes the point: it is a non-word). History and Usage: The increasing preoccupation in the late eighties with health and fitness on the one hand, and with prevention as preferable to cure on the other, produced a feeling not infrequently expressed that it had become difficult to consume or do anything without worrying about its possibly deleterious effects. Non-ism is a name for the most extreme response to the wealth of information on preventive medicine; a person who practises it is a non-ist. The word was brought into the news by reports in 1990 of a Boston psychiatrist whose son had given up almost all pleasures; he seemed to typify a growing trend in US society. His son...is stuck in a limbo of non-ism...He gave up drinking, drugs and caffeine, meat, sugar, dairy and wheat products, and sex. He is depressed and lethargic. 'He's a pleasure anorexic,' said his father. New York Times 27 May 1990, p. 22 The rule...for the 1990s...is to define yourself through denial...This new creed of 'non-ism', as the academics are calling it, draws on the fashion for abstention from drink, tobacco, drugs...and all other contaminants. The Times 13 June 1990, p. 11