shrink

[Alison Murie]

On Mar 24, 2009, at 2:49 PM, Charles Doyle wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      shrink
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>
> This past weekend I saw the movie "Revolutionary Road," which is
> almost too depressing to discuss!
>
> It gave what appeared to be a pretty realistic, accurate depiction
> of life in the mid-1950s (sometimes on the edge of caricature,
> perhaps--that sea of men's hats!) .  The one false note that I
> detected was the seemingly anachronistic use of the term "shrink"
> for 'psychiatrist'.
>
> The OED gives 1966 for its earliest example ("headshinker" is
> earlier).  Searching the phrases "his shrink," "my shrink," and
> "your shrink" in Google Books yields two instances from 1963:
> Nelson Algren, _Nelson Algren's Own Book of Lonesome Monsters_, p.
> 22; and Leslie Fiedler's _The Second Stone_, p. 184.
>
> Shouldn't all Hollywood producers be required to hire language
> checkers?  Doesn't our union have such a provision in its contract
> with the studios?
>
> --Charlie
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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I can't produce hard copy proof, but I am quite sure "shrink" was
alive & well as a slang term for psychiatrist or even clinical
psychologist in the 50s.
AM

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