Meaning & use
psychosexual
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Involving the mental and emotional side of sexuality, such as its development and how it affects behavior.
Grammar: Comes before a noun in academic and clinical writing: psychosexual development.
Patterns
- psychosexual development
- psychosexual therapy
Freud proposed that children pass through several psychosexual stages.
The clinic offers psychosexual therapy for couples.
The essay discusses psychosexual themes in the novel.
Common combinations
- psychosexual development
- Textbooks often summarize Freud's theory of psychosexual development.
- psychosexual stages
- He explained the five psychosexual stages in class.
- psychosexual therapy
- Psychosexual therapy focuses on emotional causes of difficulties.
- psychosexual disorder
- The manual once listed a psychosexual disorder of that kind.
- psychosexual thriller
- The film was a dark psychosexual thriller.
Synonyms and how they differ
- psychological
- Psychological covers the mind in general, while psychosexual narrows to the link between mind and sexuality.
- sexual
- Sexual relates to sex itself, whereas psychosexual stresses the mental and emotional side.
- emotional
- Emotional is a much broader word for feelings, with no particular link to sexuality.
Word family
- psychosexuality noun
- the mental side of sexuality
- psychosexually adverb
- in relation to the mind and sexuality
- psychology noun
- the study of the mind and behavior
- sexuality noun
- a person's sexual feelings and identity
Commonly confused: psychosexual or psychosocial?
psychosexual vs psychosocial
Psychosocial refers to the mind and social surroundings, while psychosexual refers to the mind and sexuality.
Practice
Freud's theory of ___ development describes how a child's sexual feelings are said to change over time.
Choose one answer.
Psychosexual development is Freud's theory about stages tied to sexuality. Psychosocial is a different theory, and psychedelic and psychosomatic mean something else.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “psychosexual”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.