psychical medicine

1 definition found

psychical medicine - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Psychic \Psy"chic\, Psychical \Psy"chic*al\, a. [L. psychicus,
     Gr. ?, fr. psychh` the soul, mind; cf. ? to blow: cf. F.
     psychique.]
     1. Of or pertaining to the human soul, or to the living
        principle in man.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: This term was formerly used to express the same idea as
           psychological. Recent metaphysicians, however, have
           employed it to mark the difference between psychh` the
           living principle in man, and pney^ma the rational or
           spiritual part of his nature. In this use, the word
           describes the human soul in its relation to sense,
           appetite, and the outer visible world, as distinguished
           from spiritual or rational faculties, which have to do
           with the supersensible world. --Heyse.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Of or pertaining to the mind, or its functions and
        diseases; mental; -- contrasted with physical.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Psychical blindness, Psychical deafness (Med.), forms of
        nervous disease in which, while the senses of sight and
        hearing remain unimpaired, the mind fails to appreciate
        the significance of the sounds heard or the images seen.
        
  
     Psychical contagion, the transference of disease,
        especially of a functional nervous disease, by mere force
        of example.
  
     Psychical medicine, that department of medicine which
        treats of mental diseases.
        [1913 Webster]