逼自己（也希望大家一起）學完韋氏字根詞典（17）——PSYCH

03-02

PSYCH comes from the Greek word psyche, meaning 「breath, life, soul.」 Psychology is the science of mind and behavior, and a psychologist treats or studies the mental problems of individuals and groups. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with mental and emotional disorders, and a psychiatrist (like any other doctor) may prescribe drugs to treat them.

—————————————————————————————————————————

psyche Soul, personality, mind.

? Analysts are constantly trying to understand the nations psyche and why the U.S. often behaves so differently from other countries.

Sometime back in the 16th century, we borrowed the word psyche directly from Greek into English. In Greek mythology, Psyche was a beautiful princess who fell in love with Eros (Cupid), god of love, and went through terrible trials before being allowed to marry him. The story is often understood to be about the soul redeeming itself through love. (To the Greeks, psyche also meant 「butterfly,」 which suggests how they imagined the soul.) In English, psyche often sounds less spiritual than soul, less intellectual than mind, and more private than personality.

—————————————————————————————————————————

psychedelic (1) Of or relating to a drug (such as LSD) that produces abnormal and often extreme mental effects such as hallucinations. (2) Imitating the effects of psychedelic drugs.

? In her only psychedelic experience, back in 1970, she had watched with horror as the walls began crawling with bizarrely colored creatures.

The most famous—or notorious—of the psychedelic drugs is LSD, a compound that can be obtained from various mushrooms and other fungi but is usually created in the lab. The other well-known psychedelics are psilocybin (likewise obtained from fungi) and mescaline (obtained from peyote cactus). How psychedelics produce their effects is still fairly mysterious, partly because research ceased for almost 20 years because of their reputation, but scientists are determined to find the answers and much research is now under way. Psychedelics are now used to treat anxiety in patients with cancer, and are being tested in the treatment of such serious conditions as severe depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

—————————————————————————————————————————

psychosomatic Caused by mental or emotional problems rather than by physical illness.

? Her doctor assumed her stomach problems were psychosomatic but gave her some harmless medication anyway.

Since the Greek word soma means 「body,」 psychosomatic suggests the link between mind and body. Since ones mental state may have an important effect on ones physical state, research on new medicines always involves giving some patients in the experiment a placebo (fake medicine), and some who receive the sugar pills will seem to improve. You may hear someone say of someone elses symptoms, 「Oh, its probably just psychosomatic,」 implying that the physical pain or illness is imaginary—maybe just an attempt to get sympathy—and that the person could will it away if he or she wanted to. But this can be harsh and unfair, since, whatever the cause is, the pain is usually real.

—————————————————————————————————————————

psychotherapist One who treats mental or emotional disorder or related bodily ills by psychological means.

? Hes getting medication from a psychiatrist, but its his sessions with the psychotherapist that he really values.

Many psychologists offer psychological counseling, and psychological counseling can usually be called psychotherapy, so many psychologists can be called psychotherapists. The most intense form of psychotherapy, called psychoanalysis, usually requires several visits a week. A competing type of therapy known as behavior therapy focuses on changing a persons behavior (often some individual habit such as stuttering, tics, or phobias) without looking very deeply into his or her mental state.