August 9, 1999

shrink

How did the term "shrink" come to mean "psychiatrist"?

This question comes up with some regularity.

First, shrink is broader than just 'psychiatrist'; 'a psychotherapist, especially a psychoanalyst' would probably be the best definition.

The word shrink is short for headshrinker. That's it. Headshrinker was originally used in the sense '(among certain tribal peoples) a person who decapitates a victim and shrinks and preserves the victim's head as a trophy'. By 1950 this was being applied to psychotherapists as a mildly derisive term; it became common relatively quickly.

The clipped form shrink is first recorded in the early 1960s, and it also became common quickly. Shrink was preceded by a couple of years by shrinker, from 1960 but never terribly popular. Finally, the verb shrink 'to treat by psychotherapy' (and less commonly 'to work as a psychotherapist') is first recorded in the early 1970s.