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psychohistory

American  
[sahy-koh-his-tuh-ree, -his-tree] / ˌsaɪ koʊˈhɪs tə ri, -ˈhɪs tri /

noun

  1. history or the writing of history employing the techniques of psychoanalysis to explore motivations, explain actions, etc.


psychohistory British  
/ -ˈhɪstrɪ, ˌsaɪkəʊˈhɪstərɪ /

noun

  1. biography based on psychological theories of personality development

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Etymology

Origin of psychohistory

First recorded in 1930–35; psycho- + history

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Harris plays Hari Seldon, creator of psychohistory, a mathematical crystal ball that has predicted a coming dark age, and as such he is anathema to the cloned triumvirate who have ruled the galaxy for centuries.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 28, 2023

Seldon has developed a theory of psychohistory, a mixture of history, sociology, and mathematical statistics, which he uses to make general predictions about the fate of future populations.

From Salon • Oct. 9, 2021

At the center of Foundation’s story is something called psychohistory, which is a way of using mathematics to analyze the behaviors of large populations.

From The Verge • Sep. 23, 2021

The story of his rise, roller-coastering through four decades of American history, is a hectic blend of psychohistory, domestic drama and sketch-comedy satire bound together by McKay’s ingenuity and indignation.

From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2018

More generally, Campbell had always been obsessed by the possibility of a truly scientific psychology, which he believed would have predictive power along the lines of the fictional science of psychohistory in Asimov’s Foundation series.

From Nature • Oct. 9, 2018

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