psychoanalyze

American  

[sahy-koh-an-l-ahyz] / ˌsaɪ koʊˈæn lˌaɪz /

especially British, psychoanalyse

verb (used with object)

psychoanalyzed, psychoanalyzing

1. to investigate or treat by psychoanalysis.

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Other Word Forms

• psychoanalyzer
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of psychoanalyze

First recorded in 1910–15; psycho- + analyze

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Explanation

To psychoanalyze is to use a particular kind of psychiatric therapy to treat mental illness or disorders. When doctors psychoanalyze patients, they encourage discussion of their feelings, childhood, and dreams. If a therapist psychoanalyzes you, you'll probably sit in a chair or lie on a couch while you talk about your feelings. A doctor who practices this kind of therapy is called a psychoanalyst, and her goal may be to help you realize the unconscious conflicts that make it hard for you to feel happy. The first person to psychoanalyze a patient was the Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud, in the 1890s.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

psychoanalyze psychoanalyzed psychoanalyzing

“I don’t psychoanalyze the people who talk to me, just like I don’t psychoanalyze myself, thank God. Which you want me to do, I know, and I’m not going to.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025

Parson says she was acutely aware of the challenge of illustrating the interior lives of the women, but did not set out to psychoanalyze them in movement.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 9, 2022

If I really want to psychoanalyze myself, it could be, like, just a defense mechanism; I prefer to just kind of live my life like I’m gonna die any minute or something.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2022

And she will psychoanalyze me, telling me I have mental problems.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 13, 2022

"Supposing I went to your father and had him psychoanalyze me and all," I said.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

The making of this classic drama is a story that’s been told, retold, psychoanalyzed and strip-mined for leftovers — see “The Godfather: The Corleone Family Cookbook,” just one of a library’s worth of spinoff books.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2021

A suspect is psychoanalyzed for motive, the investigation lags, dread spreads, conspiracy infects the culture.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2017

That’s what happens when your choices are relentlessly questioned and ridiculed, your past probed and psychoanalyzed in the tabloids.

From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2014

“I’ve never psychoanalyzed it, man,” Senator Marco Rubio says.

From New York Times ● Dec. 22, 2012

Heylmun and Civille have done the same thing—only they haven’t psychoanalyzed their feelings; they’ve psychoanalyzed their feelings for mayonnaise and Oreo cookies.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

It really made no sense, but more than psychoanalyzing our former president, one should look at the consequences, which are dramatic.

From Slate ● Feb. 25, 2026

There's now an entire cottage industry built around psychoanalyzing these two: What do they want?

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2021

Guillermoprieto plumbs the relationship between the poor and their self-anointed saviors, like a best friend psychoanalyzing your fixation with an ex.

From New York Times ● May 12, 2021

We have more than enough material from detailed and analytic biographies and studies for psychoanalyzing that.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2019

The idea of isolation and containment — this is me psychoanalyzing myself — may be part of my psychological makeup.

From The Verge ● Oct. 9, 2019

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