psychotopology

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noun

The psychological dimension of place; the impact of the physical environment on one's emotional and mental state; psychogeography.

Scrabble 30

Meanings

nounpsychotopology (countable and uncountable, plural psychotopologies)

plural psychotopologies

  1. countableuncountableThe psychological dimension of place; the impact of the physical environment on one's emotional and mental state; psychogeography.

    As Kurt Lewin's efforts to develop a psychotopology of personality clearly revealed, the environmental vectors which impinge upon personality must interact with psychovectors before behavioral direction is modified.

    1983, Hunter B. Shirley, Mapping the Mind, page 112
    2 more examples

    But, in its particular mixture, perhaps this anthology makes a contribution towards the 'psychotopology' suggested by Bey: a way of finding sweet-spots, 'hidden enfolded immensities that escape the measuring rod', in the maps of networked reality being drawn up at the moment.

    2001, Annals of the Architectural Association School of Architecture

    Anarchist author Hakim Bey's notion of psychotopology does not attempt to fully incorporate or understand a territory as an ideology of presence, but is instead used to suggest a movement toward certain gestures that respond to the features of Augé's placelessness.

    2018, Hunter Hawkins Fine, Surfing, Street Skateboarding, Performance, and Space: On Board Motility, →ISBN
  2. countableuncountableThe pattern or structure of mental processes.

    These differences, and difficulties in communication they cause, inspired M. Maruyama to elaborate his psychotopology.

    1998, Katarzyna Kaniowska, Danuta Markowska, Ethnology and Anthropology at the Time of Transformation, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    Tangential but very important to this paper is Maruyama's persuasive argument that there are prevailing structures of reasoning or "psychotopologies" that interpretively create both the objectivity and the relevance of all matter of inquiry.

    1981, The Tibet Journal - Volume 6, page 36

    Three types of works led to the present development of psychotopology: (1) those which show that there are different types of logics and that the choice between them depends on extralogical factors (factors independent of and beyond any logic); (2) those that deal with the problem of communication between different types of logics; (3) those that discuss individual capacity to transcend their present logic and invent new types.

    2011, Regina E. Holloman, Serghei A. Arutiunov, Perspectives on Ethnicity, →ISBN, page 25

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

psychotopology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychotopology

MLA

“psychotopology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychotopology. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “psychotopology,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/psychotopology.

Source: psychotopology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.