psychoanalysis

Etymology

It is formed from English psycho- + analysis,^[2][3][4] after German Psychoanalyse or French psycho-analyse, both used by Sigmund Freud in 1896.^[2] Barnhart and Dictionary.com treat the English word as a borrowing of the German one,^[5][6][7] and Merriam-Webster places it in the International Scientific Vocabulary, noting that it was first formed in German.^[8] Etymonline says that Freud coined the term in French in 1896,^[9] and Barnhart dates the coinage to about 1896.^[6] Freud had earlier written psychische Analyse and klinischpsychologische Analyse (1894).^[2][9] The first part goes back to Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul, mind, spirit”),^[9] and analysis to ἀνάλυσις (análusis, “a loosening, releasing”).^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Freud's method of treating mental disorders by bringing the patient's unconscious conflicts to light: 1906, in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.^[2][8][6] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1905–10.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word named a therapy first and then the theory of the mind built on it, with its concepts of the ego, the id and the superego, the conscious and the unconscious.^[10][3][11] Klein describes it as a system of psychotherapy introduced by Freud and Jung.^[4] The derivatives followed quickly: psychoanalytic in 1906, and psychoanalyst and psychoanalyze in 1911, formed on the pattern of analysis, analyst and analyze.^[6] The shorter form psychanalysis, matching psychanalyse, now the usual French word, is rare in English.^[3][8][2]

Timeline

• 1906 – a method of treating mental disorders by investigating the unconscious; also psychoanalytic.^[2][8][6]
• 1911 – psychoanalyst and the verb psychoanalyze.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A method of psychotherapy, devised by Sigmund Freud, that treats mental and emotional disorders by bringing repressed or unconscious conflicts into awareness, through free association, the interpretation of dreams and the analysis of transference: After years of psychoanalysis she understood her fear of water.^{[11][8][2][12]}
2. The theory of the mind and personality on which this method rests, built on the interplay of conscious and unconscious forces.^[11][3][13]
3. Treatment of a patient by this method.^[11][8]

Word family

• psychoanalyst
• psychoanalytically
• psychoanalytic

Related words

• psyche
• analysis
• psychology
• psychiatry
• neurosis
• psychotherapy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press