Serious Shrinkage

[Rasputin]

Ok, sorry about the title. Some things seem funnier to you when it's late at night.

Anyways, my question:
Why are psychiatrists nicknamed "shrinks"?

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"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it through not dying."
-- Woody Allen

[SoulFrost]

Think "head shrinker"...y'know, those voodoo guys who'd shrink an enemy's head and wear it on his belt....

-David

[Rasputin]

Thought about that, but couldn't see an immediate connection between shrinking heads and lying on a couch spilling your guts...

[funneefarmer]

Well, if you have a large ego you have a "big head". Thus someone trying to fix a large ego problem would be a "head shrinker" or "shrink".

That's just a WAG though.

[Guy Propski]

There's also the association of headshrinker=magician. In other words, the psychiatrist's methods are just as mysterious as the headshrinkers.

[Atrael]

Or just about as full of hooey....