shrink
noun, slang

- a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, psychotherapist

Cambridge Dictionary

---
ORIGIN

Shrink is short for head-shrinker, which originally referred to the Jivaro Indian group that lives in parts of Ecuador and Peru. The Jivaros are a primitive society best known for the odd practice of preserving the heads of their enemies by stripping the skin off the skull and then making it very small (shrinking) through a boiling process. The Jivaros believed this kept the evil spirits of their enemies from doing them harm.

Head-shrinker then began to be used as slang for a psychiatrist, although it's unclear exactly how and when this transformation took place. Michael Quinlon of World Wide Words suggests there is evidence that it stemmed from someone who worked in Hollywood. The idea is that psychiatry is like head-shrinking because it reduces bloated egos commonly found in show business.

A Time magazine article in 1950 also had a footnote pointing out that "head shrinker" was Hollywood jargon for a psychiatrist. Although the term is first recorded in 1926, it became popular after it was used in the 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause starring Jimmy Dean.

Police Chief: You know if the boy ever talked to a psychiatrist?
Plato: You mean a head shrinker?
Crawford Family Maid: Oh, Mrs. Crawford don't believe in them, sir.
Police Chief: Well, maybe she better start.

While the shortened version "shrink" appears in print earlier, its popularity rose in the 70s. This was due in part because by this time psychotherapy had become less of a stigma and many people were beginning to talk openly about their psychological problems.

Etymology of the verb "shrink": from the Old English "scrincan," to turn, bend" and the informal "shrench," to draw back or recoil (as in a snail returning to its shell)

---
Find an opportunity to SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation:

"By the way, do you know why the word SHRINK is applied to psychotherapists?"