psychagogy

Noun

psychagogy (uncountable)

1. Guidance of the soul.
   • In the Christian type of psychagogy we will see that although it is true that the person who provides spiritual direction must obey a number of rules, and that he has a number of responsibilities and obligations, the most fundamental and essential cost of the truth and of "truth-telling" will be...1981-1982, Michel Foucault, The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981--1982, published 2005
   • An even more resounding echo of Plato's Gordias can be heard in this passage: the connection between psychagogy and pedagogy.2006, James N. Comas, Between Politics and Ethics: Toward a Vocative History of English Studies, page 112
2. A psychotherapeutic method of influencing behaviour by suggesting desirable life goals.
   • The idea of a 'psychagogy' only occupies a secondary place, and has been more the concern of the disciples than of the master.2013, Oliver Brachfeld, Inferiority Feelings: In the Individual and the Group, page 49