Word.ws English Dictionary

psychodynamic

psychodynamic adjective: of or pertaining to psychodynamics, the dynamic interplay between forces that govern human behavior, or the study of this.

Adjective

psychodynamic (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to psychodynamics, the dynamic interplay between forces that govern human behavior, or the study of this
    • In the classic marshmallow studies, delaying gratification by waiting to eat the marshmallows is seen as a good result—indicating more willpower. This framing is expected given that the starting point of this research was the Freudian psychodynamic position, which contrasted hot animalistic drives...2020, Joseph Cesario, David J. Johnson, Heather L. Eisthen, “Your Brain Is Not an Onion With a Tiny Reptile Inside”, in Current Directions in Psychological Science, volume 29, number 3
    • It then told me it was trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, which it said was an “effective way to challenge how you’re thinking about things.” Unlike psychodynamic or psychoanalytic therapies, C.B.T. argues that our emotions and moods are influenced by our patterns of thinking; change those...2022 September 27, Barclay Bram, “My Therapist, the Robot”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2022

Origin of psychodynamic

From psycho- + dynamic.

Words formed from psychodynamic

Questions about psychodynamic

What does psychodynamic mean?
Psychodynamic means of or pertaining to psychodynamics, the dynamic interplay between forces that govern human behavior, or the study of this.
What part of speech is psychodynamic?
Psychodynamic is an adjective.

Words near psychodynamic in the dictionary

  1. psychodramatic
  2. psychodramatically
  3. psychodramatics
  4. psychodramatist
  5. psychodramatists
  6. psychodynamic
  7. psychodynamically
  8. psychodynamics
  9. psychodynamism
  10. psychodysleptic
  11. psychodysleptics

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: psychodynamic (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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