head-shrinker
nounEtymology Originally US, probably by reference to slang terms like “swelled head” for someone with delusions of grandeur; a psychiatrist would remove such delusions, thus figuratively shrinking the patient's swelled head.
1
Slang A psychiatrist or psychotherapist; a shrink.
- DIESEL: In the opinion on this court, this child is depraved on account he ain't had a normal home. ACTION: Hey, I'm depraved on account I'm deprived. DIESEL: So take him to a headshrinker.1957, West Side Story:
2
Literally One who shrinks heads, as previously done by some Amazon tribes.
- I listened to the sculptor of Dead Dad give an interview to a European television station while he crouched by the shrunken corpse of his own creation, a huge technical advance over the headshrinkers of New Guinea.2010, Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It: