α. 1600s pseuchomachie, 1600s 1800s– psychomachy Brit. 
/sʌɪˈkɒməki/, U.S. /saɪˈkɑməki/.
β. 1800s– psychomachia.
psychomachian.
/ˌsʌɪkəʊˈmakɪə/, U.S. /ˌsaɪkoʊˈmɑkiə/, /ˌsaɪkoʊˈmækiə/ rare before 20th cent.
Conflict within the soul, or between the soul and the body; an instance of this; a literary or artistic representation of such a conflict.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > spirituality > [noun] > spiritual conflict
psychomachia1629
1629 J. Gaule Distractions 112 I haue prophesied the number, order, and euent of a Mysticall Pseuchomachie.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia Psychomachy, a war betwixt the soul and body.
1899 North Adams (Mass.) Evening Transcript 2 Oct. There is a fascination in beholding the glands and tendons and arteries of an immoral character theatrically laid bare..but one can get tired of pathology and psychomachy.
1905 Burlington Mag. July 264 The figure of Falsehood..had been destroyed, and what remained of the Virtue herself was much injured. It is, however, interesting to get a third-named figure of this Psychomachia.
1936 C. S. Lewis Allegory of Love ii. 73 A good man, even in a panegyric, can now be good only as a result of a successful psychomachy.
1954 C. S. Lewis Eng. Lit. in 16th Cent. i. i. 92 ‘Bewtie and the Prisoneir’ is a neat but slightly frigid psychomachy.
1972 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Nov. 1353/1 Ruskin's criticism..becomes a psychomachia dramatizing his own mental state.
2000 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 40 445 Cordelia's private feelings become the actors of an allegorical psychomachia.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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