Metapsychologists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A specialist who studies the nature of the mind and consciousness beyond traditional psychology
2. An individual engaged in the examination of mental processes and phenomena through a metaphysical lens
3. A professional focusing on the interdisciplinary study of psychological and spiritual dimensions of human experience

Etymology: "Metapsychologists" is simply the plural of "metapsychologist," so the history belongs to the root word. That root is built from "meta-" and "psychologist." The prefix "meta-" comes from Greek "meta," meaning "after," "beyond," or "about," and in this sense it signals a study that goes beyond or underlies ordinary psychology, much as "metaphysics" examines what lies behind physics. "Psychologist" combines Greek "psyche," meaning "soul" or "mind," with the agent suffix "-logist," from "logos," meaning "study" or "discourse." Put together, the term names someone who examines the foundations, assumptions, and wider dimensions of the study of the mind, including its spiritual aspects. The pattern follows the older coinage "metapsychology," which Sigmund Freud used for his theoretical framework of the mind, so the word belongs to a family of terms that reach past the practical study of psychology toward its underlying principles.

Synonyms: psychologists, philosophers of mind, theorists, cognitive scientists, psychoanalysts