# Why do they call phsychiatrists, shrinks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520 "2003-01-04T00:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chriskemper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e495f1/32.png) [@chriskemper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chriskemper)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520/1 "2003-01-04T00:06:37Z")
Why do they call phsychiatrists, shrinks? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520/2 "2003-01-04T00:08:03Z")
Head-shrinker. He cures your swelled head. ---
**Author:** ![chriskemper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e495f1/32.png) [@chriskemper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chriskemper)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520/3 "2003-01-04T00:09:33Z")
Is there an origin for it, or someone who coined the phrase? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520/4 "2003-01-04T00:19:44Z")
The OED lists it as American slang. Earliest cite is from Thomas Pynchon in 1966, but I doubt he coined it. It was a reference to the variou headshrinker tribes. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520/5 "2003-01-04T00:29:43Z")
Websters has a date of 1590 on that but it may be from another definition. They give this: “3 [short for headshrinker] : a clinical psychiatrist or psychologist _regaling us with all the stories he never told his shrink Rolling Stone_” That is one weird sentence there. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520/6 "2003-01-04T02:26:43Z")
[Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/030698.html) > [@](#): > > The slang term “shrink,” applied to psychiatrists and psychotherapists and psychologists, is a shortened form of “headshrinker,” a derogatory comparison of the profession to primitive tribes who ritually dry and shrink the heads of their slain enemies. The term “shrink” dates back at least to the early 1960’s, and first showed up in print in Thomas Pynchon’s “The Crying of Lot 49” in 1966. > > If “headshrinker” seems a bit exotic for an insulting metaphor, it may help to note that magazine cartoons of the 1950’s and 1960’s were awash in cannibalistic natives, witch doctors and the like, so the imagery of “shrink” is not all that surprising. And if your wife’s feelings are a bit hurt by this revelation of the term’s origins, just remember the wisdom of my personal psychological counselor, Pogo: Don’t take life so serious – it ain’t nohow permanent. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-they-call-phsychiatrists-shrinks/146520/7 "2003-01-04T04:35:59Z")
The doctors at the psych hospital I worked at years ago called their staff-league softball team “The Jivaros”, after the South American tribe that’s best known for making shrunken heads. Somebody there wasn’t pompous about the profession!