Psychoanalyzes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Examines a person's unconscious thoughts, feelings, and motives to understand their mental state and behavior
2. Studies underlying mental and emotional factors influencing someone's actions through in-depth psychological analysis
3. Interprets hidden psychological content and conflicts in an individual's mind to reveal causes of behavior

Etymology: "Psychoanalyzes" is the third-person singular form of "psychoanalyze", so it takes its history from that verb. The verb is built from "psycho-", from Ancient Greek "psūkhḗ", meaning soul, breath or life, and "analyze", from Ancient Greek "analýein", meaning to loosen or undo, in the sense of taking something apart into its components. Put together, the verb means to take apart the mind in order to examine its workings. The combination reflects the method it names. "Analyze" was already a common English verb before "psychoanalyze" appeared, and the prefix "psycho-" was attached to it to mark the investigation as one of the mind rather than of matter or chemicals. The word's sense of digging beneath surface behaviour to reach hidden motives follows directly from that picture of loosening a thing to see what it is made of.

Synonyms: analyzes, examines

Antonyms: ignores