psychischer

Psychischer is a German adjective form derived from psychisch, meaning relating to the mind or mental processes. The root psych- comes from the Greek psyche, via Latin and Germanic development, and it is used across psychology, medicine, law, and everyday language to describe mental states, conditions, or attributes.

In usage, psychischer appears as an inflected form of psychisch, which changes with gender, number, and case. It is commonly found before masculine singular nouns, for example ein psychischer Zustand (a mental state) or ein psychischer Druck (psychological pressure). The form is part of the broader family of terms in which psychisch is the base adjective, with other inflections such as psychische (before feminine or plural nouns) and psychisches (neuter). This allows speakers to adapt the word to different syntactic contexts while conveying psychological or mental meaning.

The core sense of psychischer is psychological or mental, as opposed to supernatural connotations sometimes suggested by the related English word “psychic.” In German, paranormal or extrasensory phenomena are typically described with terms such as parapsychisch or übersinnlich rather than psychisch. Consequently, psychischer is most at home in discussions of mental health, cognitive processes, emotional states, and related phenomena, appearing in phrases like psychischer Zustand, psychischer Stress, and—across inflected forms—psychische Gesundheit.

See also psychisch, psychology, psyche.