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psychocentric

adjective /ˌsaɪkə(ʊ)ˈsɛntɹɪk/

  1. Primarily focused on the mind or spirit, especially as opposed to the body.

    I have confessed that I feel drawn to you by many psychocentric influences.

  2. Of a tourist: tending to avoid adventures and risks, preferring the familiar; self-inhibiting.

    These experts type some aerophobes as psychocentric individuals so self-focused on imaginary problems they have little energy left to enjoy life. Other fearful flyers are stymied by territory-boundedness—an unadventurous spirit.

Where it comes from

The adjective is derived from psycho- (prefix meaning ‘relating to the mind or soul’) + -centric (suffix meaning ‘having a specified object at the centre, or as the focus of attention’). The noun is probably derived from the adjective. Adjective sense 2 (“of a tourist: tending to avoid adventures and risks”) and the noun sense (“tourist who tends to avoid adventures and risks”) were coined by the American travel researcher Stanley C. Plog in a paper presented to the Southern California Chapter of the Travel Research Association on 10 October 1972, which was later published in February 1974: see the quotation.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry psychocentric (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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