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

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Etymology

Origin of psychodynamics

First recorded in 1870–75; psycho- + dynamics

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

psychodynamics

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 ● Sep. 8, 2023

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 ● Jan. 26, 2021

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 ● Apr. 17, 2020

He was moved not by the political promise of the era, but by the psychodynamics of an age when men and women put themselves, rather than their obligations, first.

From Slate ● May 19, 2015

There's a wait-and-see attitude toward everything, including the sciences and particularly the new half-finished science of psychodynamics.

From The Sensitive Man by Poul William Anderson

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