psychodynamics

American  

[sahy-koh-dahy-nam-iks] / ˌsaɪ koʊ daɪˈnæm ɪks /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. any clinical approach to personality, as Freud's, that sees personality as the result of a dynamic interplay of conscious and unconscious factors.

2. the aggregate of motivational forces, both conscious and unconscious, that determine human behavior and attitudes.

   Mythologists see the myths as having developed through the psychodynamics of the human social psyche.

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psychodynamics British  

/ ˌsaɪkəʊdaɪˈnæmɪks /

noun

1. (functioning as singular) psychol the study of interacting motives and emotions

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Other Word Forms

• psychodynamic adjective
• psychodynamically adverb

Etymology

Origin of psychodynamics

First recorded in 1870–75; psycho- + dynamics

Example Sentences

In my psychotherapy practice of 30-plus years, I have not seen such a common theme of existential anxiety created not by individual psychodynamics but by profound fear about the state of the Earth.

From Seattle Times

You will gain a far better understanding of the psychodynamics of how police agencies impose their will by sitting through “Is This a Room” than you would most streamed crime procedurals.

From Washington Post

Allen and Schuur committed to delivering the same pleasures of the original — the radical intimacy, the hyper articulacy, the intense focus on the psychodynamics of two people in a nice room.

From New York Times

In the real-time argument that ensues — punctuated by shouts, murmurs, microaggressions and micro-reconciliations — Marie will give voice to everything from the invisibility of women’s emotional labor to the psychodynamics of the artist-muse hierarchy.

From Washington Post

Letters are leaky in all sorts of ways — the baby wakes from the nap and cries; the air-raid siren sounds; the social mores and psychodynamics of other eras filter in.

From New York Times