psychohistory

[ sahy-koh-his-tuh-ree, -his-tree ]

noun

1. history or the writing of history employing the techniques of psychoanalysis to explore motivations, explain actions, etc.

psychohistory

/ -ˈhɪstrɪ; ˌsaɪkəʊˈhɪstərɪ /

noun

1. biography based on psychological theories of personality development

Other Words From

• psy·cho·his·to·ri·an [sahy-koh-hi-, stawr, -ee-, uh, n, -, stohr, -], noun
• psy·cho·his·tor·ic [sahy-koh-hi-, stawr, -ik, -, stor, -], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of psychohistory¹

First recorded in 1930–35; psycho- + history

Example Sentences

Or is Trump just an American expression of the trends that have revived nationalism all over the world, precisely the sort of figure a “psychohistory” of our era would have anticipated?

From Seattle Times

Harris plays Hari Seldon, creator of psychohistory, a mathematical crystal ball that has predicted a coming dark age, and as such he is anathema to the cloned triumvirate who have ruled the galaxy for centuries.

From Los Angeles Times

Seldon has developed a theory of psychohistory, a mixture of history, sociology, and mathematical statistics, which he uses to make general predictions about the fate of future populations.

From Salon

I want to talk about Jared Harris, who plays Hari Seldon, creator of psychohistory — a fictional science that can predict large-scale future events by mathematics — and specifically I want to talk about the way he sits in a chair.

From Los Angeles Times

At the center of Foundation’s story is something called psychohistory, which is a way of using mathematics to analyze the behaviors of large populations.

From The Verge