psyche [M17th] We associate psyche with things of the mind, but to the Greek spsukhē meant ‘breath, life, soul’, which then developed into the idea of ‘self’. This base is involved in the first element of the science terms psychology [M17th], and psychiatry (E19th from Greek psukhē and iatreia ‘healing’). Psychedelic was coined in the 1950s from psyche and Greek delos ‘clear, manifest’. The tale of Cupid and Psyche, a folk tale turned into an allegory of love and the soul, dates from the 2nd century ad, but probably has an earlier source. See also pneumatic.