head-shrinker

• headshrinker

Originally US, probably by reference to slang terms like “swelled head” for someone with delusions of grandeur; a psychiatrist would remove such delusions, thus figuratively shrinking the patient's swelled head.

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head-shrinker (plural head-shrinkers)

1. (slang) A psychiatrist or psychotherapist; a shrink.

   Synonyms: headshrink, shrink, trick cyclist

   • 1957, West Side Story:

     DIESEL: In the opinion on this court, this child is depraved on account he ain't had a normal home. ACTION: Hey, I'm depraved on account I'm deprived. DIESEL: So take him to a headshrinker.

2. (literally) One who shrinks heads, as previously done by some Amazon tribes.
   • 2010, Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It:

     I listened to the sculptor of Dead Dad give an interview to a European television station while he crouched by the shrunken corpse of his own creation, a huge technical advance over the headshrinkers of New Guinea.

• “head-shrinker n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present