philobat
nounEtymology Blend of philo- + acrobat. Coined by Hungarian psychoanalyst Michael Balint in 1955.
1
Human sciences, Medicine, Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Sciences Someone who enjoys handling challenging and dangerous situations on their own.
- Coordinate term: ocnophil
- Or maybe this was her true personality coming through, the way alcoholism showed in some people around thirty-five. Jean the philobat, on the pattern of acrobat, the type that prefers to cope alone with difficult, uncertain situations. Though of course she hadn't been alone.2008, Isabel Fonseca, Attachment, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, pages 182–183:
- Derived terms
- philobatic