psycho-ˈhistory
Also without hyphen.
[f. psycho- + history n.]
a. The analysis and interpretation of historical events with the aid of psychological theory; also = psychobiography b.
| 1934 Reunion I. 34 Judged by this profound philosophical test, so many of the glibly clear solutions of psycho⁓history are unsatisfactory. 1942 I. Asimov in Astounding Sci. Fiction June 30/2 The terms I use are at best mere approximations, but none of you are qualified to understand the true symbology of Psycho-History. 1957 W. Abell Collective Dream in Art 7 The energies involved in such conflicts are neither exclusively material nor exclusively psychological... The further we penetrate into the insights of psycho-history, the more likely we are to discover the means of mastering its disruptive forces. 1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 25 Mar. 98/2 The roots of psycho⁓history may go back to Sigmund Freud's Leonardo da Vinci: A Study in Psychosexuality, published in Vienna in 1916. 1976 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Jan. 117/1 Attempts have been made to explain Hitler's personality and ideology, in part at any rate, in terms of his childhood experiences. These works of psychohistory vary in their perceptiveness. |
b. A treatise on or study in psycho-history; a psychobiography.
| 1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 25 Mar. 98/3 Another psycho⁓history to be published..next fall is a study of Hitler by Dr. Walter Langer. 1976 New Yorker 17 May 60/1 Erik Erikson, in ‘Gandhi's Truth’, a biographical exploration that he calls a ‘psycho-history’, attaches considerable importance to their relationship. |
So psycho-hiˈstorian, an expert in or writer of psycho-history.
| 1934 Reunion I. July 34 The psycho-historians have created a new and uneasy fashion; and while we can welcome an exposé of some of the lies of history such as Mr. Belloc is making, there are other much-quoted verdicts of ecclesiastical historians which are more epigrammatic than true. 1949 Astounding Sci. Fiction Nov. 21/1 It is enough for a Psychohistorian..to know his Biostatistics and his Neurochemical Electromathematics. 1970 Daily Tel. 23 Feb. 9/6 A trained psycho-historian..who had witnessed the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, would have realised that the probability of a World War had been raised to higher than 70 per cent. 1975 L. de Mause Bibliogr. of Psychohist. p. viii, What the new psycho⁓historians are creating is a radical empiricism. |