Why are psychiatrists called shrinks?
Answer:
Because they supposedly get all the ''Nonesense out tof the mind or brain and so ''Shrink it ''
they make your questions smaller !!
.."Shrink" probably originated from a combination of the two words "head shrink" and the single word "headshrinker," as a humorous, disparaging comparison of the process of psychotherapy to primitive tribal practices of shrinking the heads of enemies.
Jenn is correct. Nothing I can add to that.
This is a very good question! A lot of people find it difficult to say they are seeing a Dr. for mental problems. Makes them uncomfortable admitting they have issues they can't solve by theirselves. If they just say "shrink" it minimizes the term and is not so hard to talk about. If you say, "I am seeing a psychiatrist",,,people assume you are "crazy!" It is just a slang term for the doctors that helps you understand your feelings and to sort your situation out and to help the healing of your mind. It is also because in days of old, people actually thought that the pracitce of psychiatristry did shrink your mind. There were old methods, such as over doing electrical shock therapy that did shrink your brain and cause a lot of brain cells to die.
It's short for "head shrinker"--it comes from the idea that psychiatrists are like witch-doctors, that it's all a lot of mumbo-jumbo and nonsense, like the shamans in S. America that literally shrank their victims' heads. Carries this idea of the patient as being victimised by the "shrink" for money.
I don't usually chime in when the right answer has been given, but you've been given a great mish-mosh of right and wrong here.
Originally the expression was "headshrinker" -- like the cultures that would physically shrink the heads of enemies they'd killed.
That got shortened to "shrink" -- if you watch old movies, you'll see the original term used; over time, it got shortened.
I think the "mumbo-jumbo" thing is what was originally behind it.
Interesting, isn't it, how the original sense got lost.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything about making your mind smaller by getting rid of tangles and puzzles, or actually physically shrinking your brain from electro-shock, but more the mumbo-jumbo aspect.
The idea that you could talk out serious mental problems seemed absurd and like magic to people.
Since you've gotten such a hodge-podge of answers, you might want to try other sources, such as an on-line dictionary -- heck, maybe an actual, physical dictionary, one of the good ones with detailed etymologies.
Because they are suppose to Shrink your problems
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