Witzelsucht

Witzelsucht, a German term meaning joking addiction, is a set of rare neurological symptoms marked by a tendency to make puns, tell inappropriate jokes, or relate pointless stories in situations where such behavior is socially inappropriate. A person with witzelsucht is unable to read sarcasm in others, and a less common accompanying symptom is hypersexuality, meaning a tendency to make sexual comments at inappropriate times or in inappropriate situations. People with the condition do not understand that their own behavior is abnormal, so they do not respond to the reactions of the people around them. Witzelsucht is most commonly seen in patients who have suffered frontal lobe damage, particularly from tumors or trauma affecting the right frontal lobe. The disorder takes its name from the German neurologist Hermann Oppenheim, who reviewed and named the condition, while an earlier and less focused description of a related state, called moria or pathologic giddiness, was first described by the German neurologist Moritz Jastrowitz in 1888.