psychoanalyze
Definition
Verb: * To treat someone using psychoanalysis, a therapeutic method developed by Sigmund Freud. This involves exploring a person's unconscious thoughts, feelings, and past experiences (often from childhood) to understand and resolve psychological conflicts and disorders. The process typically uses techniques like free association and dream analysis.
Usage
This verb is used to describe the professional action of a psychoanalyst on a patient. It is a formal, clinical term. * The psychiatrist decided to psychoanalyze the patient to uncover the root of his anxiety. * In the novel, the protagonist is psychoanalyzed over several years. * She is training to learn how to psychoanalyze individuals.
Examples
- The therapist offered to psychoanalyze him, but he was hesitant to discuss his dreams.
- Famous historical figures have been psychoanalyzed posthumously by scholars.
- "We cannot psychoanalyze a character in a book as if they were a real person," the professor cautioned.
Advanced Usage
- To psychoanalyze oneself: To attempt to apply the principles of psychoanalysis to understand one's own unconscious motivations. This is generally considered difficult without professional training.
- He spent years trying to psychoanalyze himself, reading Freud's works.
- Used figuratively (often informally/critically): To over-analyze someone's motives or behavior in a way that resembles psychological analysis.
- Stop trying to psychoanalyze me every time I choose a different color!
Variants and Related Words
- Psychoanalysis (n): The method or theory itself.
- He studied the history of psychoanalysis.
- Psychoanalyst (n): The practitioner who performs psychoanalysis.
- She visited her psychoanalyst three times a week.
- Psychoanalytic (adj): Relating to psychoanalysis.
- He wrote a paper on psychoanalytic theory.
Synonyms
- Analyze (in a psychological context)
- Treat (using psychoanalytic methods)
Related Phrases/Idioms
- To put someone on the couch: An informal idiom referring to the act of psychoanalyzing someone, referencing the classic psychoanalytic setup where the patient reclines on a couch.
- Every time I mention my mother, he acts like he's putting me on the couch.
Verb
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subject to psychoanalytic treatment
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I was analyzed in Vienna by a famous psychiatrist
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