psychoprophylaxisn.
/ˌsʌɪkəʊˌprɒfᵻˈlaksɪs/, U.S. /ˌsaɪkoʊˌproʊfəˈlæksəs/ Medicine.
The prevention of disease or promotion of health and well-being by psychological means; esp. a method of alleviating pain in labour by psychological training which includes techniques of relaxation and distraction.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > anaesthetization, pain-killing, etc. > [noun] > analgesia > methods used in childbirth
twilight sleep1912
psychoprophylaxy1958
psychoprophylaxis1960
1909 T. A. Williams in Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. 4 182 I shall use the word psychoprophylaxis, not to signify the prevention of psychic disorders, but to mean the preservation of health by psychic means.
1909 T. A. Williams in Jrnl. Abnormal Psychol. 4 184 The essence of psychoprophylaxis, as of psychotherapy and education, is to associate useful activities with agreeable feeling-tones, and to disassociate from useless or injurious acts the agreeable feeling-tones that may have been acquired.
1936 Science 24 July 71/1 The celebration of one's birthday, after a certain age, is probably sound psychoprophylaxis.
1960 D. A. Myshne tr. Velvovsky Painless Childbirth through Psychoprophylaxis viii. 167 By psychoprophylaxis of labour pain we imply a system of measures aimed at preventing the appearance and development of labour pain and effected through influences exerted on the higher divisions of the central nervous system.
1988 Mother Apr. 21/1 Psychoprophylaxis classes began to catch on as mums learnt to pant their way through labour pains, yet home deliveries were going out.
1997 R. Porter Greatest Benefit to Mankind xxi. 697 In the Soviet Union ‘psychoprophylaxis’—learning to ignore pain by concentrating on somatic sensations elsewhere—was adopted in 1951 as the official method of childbirth pain relief.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1909