Today's psychologists consider "drapetomania" to be a cruel and false diagnosis originating in the prevailing culture of the southern United States in the era of slavery.

Drapetomania

A discredited 19th-century hypothesis that purported to diagnose a mental illness causing enslaved Africans to flee captivity.

Psychologists

Professionals who study cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior by observing, interpreting, and recording how individuals relate to one another and to their environments.