psychic energy

American  

noun

Psychoanalysis.

1. according to Freud, the force that lies behind all mental processes, having its basic source as the id.

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Etymology

Origin of psychic energy

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

We’ll have robot cars, robocops, terminators and a fully functioning Skynet that grades social status from Instagram likes—unless we’re all entombed Matrix-like in pods wearing Neurolinks to capture our psychic energy.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

Rather, it’s that I’ve decided that this time around, I will not exert my own psychic energy toward wondering what is bothering him and mistaking that for anything meaningful.

From Slate • Feb. 9, 2025

Army’s attempts to harness psychic energy to kill the animals by glaring intently at them.

From Science Magazine • Dec. 7, 2023

I really do believe that if you put enough love and psychic energy into a character, they do start to generate their own destiny.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 30, 2023

If the unpleasant fact that has occurred should painfully affect our interests, pleasure would not arise, laughter would be at once choked, the psychic energy would be strained and overstrained by other more serious perceptions.

From Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic by Croce, Benedetto