psych-, psycho-, -psyche, -psychic, -psychical, -psychically +
(Greek: mind, spirit, consciousness; mental processes; the human soul; breath of life)
A prefix that is normally used with elements of Greek origin, psych- affects the meanings of hundreds of words.
Etymologically, this element includes such meanings as, breath, to breathe, life, soul, spirit, mind, consciousness; and literally, "that which breathes".
polypsychical, polypsychic, polypsychism
1. Having many souls, many-souled.
2. The belief in a multiplicity of souls in one person.
3. The belief in a multiplicity of spiritual beings as the causes of natural phenomena.
4. A belief that humans have several souls or modes of intelligence.
prepsychotic
1. Of or relating to symptoms, or to the period of time, prior to the onset of a psychosis.
2. Denoting a potential for a psychotic episode, one that appears imminent under continued stress.
psycatharsis
The bringing of so-called traumatic experiences and their affective associations into consciousness by interview, hypnosis, or the use of drugs; such as, sodium amytal.
psych
1. Short for psychology or psychiatry.
2. Psychical research.
3. A psychologist, psychiatrist, or psychoanalyst.
4. When used as a verb: To influence (someone) psychologically; to excite, stimulate; to prepare (oneself or another) mentally for a special effort or the like; to gain a psychological advantage over, to intimidate, to demoralize.
psychagogic
Attractive; persuasive; inspiring.
psychagogos
A conductor of souls to the lower world; especially Hermes; also, an evoker of spirits; a necromancer.
psychagogue
1. Someone who directs or leads the mind.
2. A person who calls up departed spirits; a necromancer.
3. A believer in or practicer of psychagogy.
psychagogy, psychagogical
1. Influencing or leading the mind or soul; persuasive, attractive.
2. Conjuring up or evoking the spirits of the dead.
3. Psychotherapeutic re-education stressing social adjustment of the individual.
4. A psychotherapy that stresses the adoption by the patient of a suitable life goal.
5. A conductor of souls to the lower world; especially, Hermes. Also, an evoker of spirits; a necromancer.
psychal
Of or pertaining to the soul; spiritual; psychical.
psychalgia
1. Distress attending a mental effort, noted especially in melancholia; also, algopsychalia, mind pain; and phrenalgia, psychalgalia, soul pain.
2. Mental distress marked by auditory and visual hallucinations, often associated with melancholia.
3. Discomfort or pain, usually in the head, which accompanies mental activity (obsessions, hallucinations, etc.), and is recognized by the patient as being emotional in origin. Psychalgia is also used to refer to any psychogenic pain disorder.
psychalia
An emotional condition characterized by auditory and visual hallucinations.
psychandric
A reference to the mind of a man or men.
psychanopsia
1. Mind blindness.
2. Visual agnosia, or the inability to recognize objects by sight.
The subject sees the object, but cannot identify it; because of a lesion in the area of the occipital cortex.
psychasthenia, psychasthenic
1. A neurotic state characterized by a lack of energy and decision and by obsessions, doubts, phobias, tics, etc.
2. A form of nervous weakness in which the psychical element is dominant.
3. Medical Latin, literally, "weakness of the soul" (from Greek "soul").
psychataxia
1. Disordered power of concentration.
2. Mental confusion; the inability to fix one's attention on anything or to make any sustained mental effort.
Inter-related cross references, directly or indirectly, involving the "mind, mental" word units:
anima-;
anxi-;
deliri-;
hallucina-;
menti-;
moro-;
noo-;
nous;
phreno-;
thymo-2.
Word units related to breath and breathe:
hal-;
pneo-;
pneumato-;
pneumo-;
spiro.
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