

(Greek: mind, spirit, consciousness; mental processes; the human soul; breath of life; literally, "that which breathes" or "breathing")

A prefix that is normally used with elements of Greek origin, psych- affects the meanings of hundreds of words.

Etymologically, this element includes such meanings as, breath, to breathe, life, soul, spirit, mind, consciousness.

A conductor of souls to the lower world; especially Hermes; also, an evoker of spirits; a necromancer.
1. Someone who directs or leads the mind.
2. A person who calls up departed spirits; a necromancer.
3. A believer in or practicer of psychagogy.
1. Influencing or leading the mind or soul; persuasive, attractive.
2. Conjuring up or evoking the spirits of the dead.
3. Psychotherapeutic re-education stressing social adjustment of the individual.
4. A psychotherapy that stresses the adoption by the patient of a suitable life goal.
5. A conductor of souls to the lower world; especially, Hermes. Also, an evoker of spirits; a necromancer.
Of or pertaining to the soul; spiritual; psychical.
2. Mental distress marked by auditory and visual hallucinations, often associated with melancholia.
psychalia (s) (noun)
An emotional condition characterized by auditory and visual hallucinations (absence of actual actions): "Lorna was hearing voices and seeing non-existing images as a result of her mental disorders."
A reference to the mind of a man or men.
1. Mind blindness.
2. Visual agnosia, or the inability to recognize objects by sight.

The subject sees the object, but cannot identify it; because of a lesion in the area of the occipital cortex.

1. A neurotic state characterized by a lack of energy and decision and by obsessions, doubts, phobias, tics, etc.
2. A form of nervous weakness in which the psychical element is dominant.
3. Medical Latin, literally, "weakness of the soul" (from Greek "soul").
1. Disordered power of concentration.
2. Mental confusion; the inability to fix one's attention on anything or to make any sustained mental effort.
A reference to the perception and interpretation of sounds.
psyche (s) (noun)
1. Breath, to breathe, to blow, (later) to cool; hence, life (identified with or indicated by the breath): The psyche is an animating principle in humans and other living beings, the source of all vital activities, rational or irrational, the soul or spirit, in distinction from its material vehicle, the body."

"Sometimes psyche is considered capable of persisting in a disembodied state after separation from the body at death."

2. In Mythology, personified by Plato and other philosophers, it was extended to the anima mundi, conceived to animate the general system of the universe, as the soul animates the individual organism.

"St. Paul (developing a current Jewish distinction between spirit or breath, and nephesh, soul) used psyche as the lower or merely natural life of man, shared with other animals, in contrast with the spirit."
3. The soul, or spirit, as distinguished from the body; the mind and what it processes.
4. The conscious and unconscious mind and emotions; especially, as influencing and affecting the whole person: "The psyche includes both conscious and unconscious processes."
5. A term for the subjective aspects of the mind, one's self, and the soul; the psychological or spiritual as distinct from the bodily nature of humans.

Psychedelic articles or phenomena collectively; the subculture associated with psychedelic drugs.
psychedelic, psychodelic
1. Originally used in 1963 to mean mind-manifesting and now used by lay persons to describe some of the subjective aspects of intoxication, particularly with a drug; such as, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or other drugs (hashish, mescaline, etc.) that are mind-altering and produce visual hallucinations.
2. Producing an effect or sensation held to resemble that produced by a psychedelic drug; specifically, having vivid colors, often in bold abstract designs or in motion.
3. A reference to a person who takes a psychedelic drug or who has a psychedelic life-style.

Inter-related cross references, directly or indirectly, involving the "mind, mental" word units: anima-; anxi-; deliri-; hallucina-; menti-; moro-; noo-; nous; phreno-; thymo-2.

Word units related to breath and breathe: hal-; pneo-; pneumato-; pneumo-; spiro.