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psychoanalyst

psychoanalyst

12 7.0
A doctor or therapist who treats mental and emotional problems by talking about thoughts and dreams
  • noun
  • /ˌsaɪkoʊˈænəlɪst/
  • Specialized
translation icon : psicoanalista
  • Many people seek guidance from a psychoanalyst to understand their emotional issues better.
  • the work of psychoanalysts
  • become a psychoanalyst

She's a psychoanalyst, classic post Freudian one.

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Examples

  • For example, classical psychoanalysts listen to their clients' history, thoughts, fantasies, and dreams over a period of some years.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Not exactly, I'm a psychoanalyst.

  • I would very much like to talk to a psychoanalyst about collecting.

  • You're going into the hands of a good psychoanalyst.

  • Well, she's going to that new psychoanalyst.

  • Mrs. Carter was, in fact, to be a patient of Dr. James Jackson Putnam, a psychoanalyst and Harvard professor.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Susie was by then a thirty-one-year-old psychoanalyst, and on some level, she must have known what she was doing.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Freud, of course, was the founding psychoanalyst who laid bare unconscious processes.

  • For all these reasons, by the mid-fifties, psychoanalysts were clearly among the port city's most prestigious professionals.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Fairbairn (1954) is one of the group of psychoanalysts who have become known as object-relations theorists.

    Academic text (1993)

Synonyms

therapist
vspsychoanalyst
508 3.7

A trained person who helps people with physical or mental health problems

uses psychoanalytic techniques specifically rather than any therapy type
psychiatrist
vspsychoanalyst
  • Specialized
453 5.1

A doctor who treats people with mental health problems and prescribes medicine

is defined by psychoanalytic training and techniques rather than general medical treatment
shrink
vspsychoanalyst
  • Slang
240 8.9

A doctor who helps people with their mental health

is a formal, trained practitioner using psychoanalytic techniques
psych
vspsychoanalyst
  • Informal
119 8.9

A person who helps people with their feelings and thoughts

is a specialized professionally trained psychoanalytic practitioner
analyst
vspsychoanalyst
56 5.6

A trained therapist who helps people understand their feelings and past through talk

is specifically a trained medical doctor or therapist using those techniques
psychotherapist
vspsychoanalyst
27 5.5

A person who helps others with mental and emotional problems by talking and giving support

focuses instead on psychoanalytic techniques rather than general psychological methods
clinician
vspsychoanalyst
  • Specialized
22 4.5

A health worker who treats patients directly

practises psychoanalysis as a licensed clinical treatment
shrinker
vspsychoanalyst
  • Slang
3 9.0

A person who helps people with mental or emotional problems

names a clinician trained and licensed to practise psychoanalysis
head-shrinker
vspsychoanalyst
  • Slang
1 9.3

A doctor who treats mental health problems

refers to a licensed professional trained in psychoanalysis

How Psychoanalytic

psychoanalyst
  • Specialized
12 7.0
counselor
  • US
311 3.2

Surface Forms

psychoanalyst singular

Morphology

psychoanalyst = analyst (semi-transparent) = psycho + analyst

The word is built from the combining form psycho- plus analyst, but the resulting term is a specialized professional label that is not fully predictable for an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Psychoanalyst starts with psycho-, the same part you see in psychology, and it means 'mind' or 'soul', while the rest comes from analyze, which means 'to break apart' or 'examine'. So a psychoanalyst is a therapist who carefully 'examines' a person's thoughts and feelings to find the deeper causes of their problems.