Virtuous English AcademyMind & Behaviour — C1 English Vocabulary
This C1 vocabulary list gathers 60 advanced English words about mind & behaviour — deep psychology and motivation. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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psychosis/saɪˈkəʊ.sɪs/
A serious mental illness losing touch with reality.
“He suffered a brief psychosis.”
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neurosis/njʊəˈrəʊ.sɪs/
A mental condition causing anxiety or obsession.
“Her neurosis stemmed from childhood.”
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narcissism/ˈnɑː.sɪ.sɪ.zəm/
Excessive interest in yourself.
“His narcissism is striking.”
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egotism/ˈeɡ.ə.tɪ.zəm/
The practice of talking about yourself too much.
“His egotism alienates people.”
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self-awareness/ˌself.əˈweə.nəs/
Knowledge of your own character and feelings.
“Therapy builds self-awareness.”
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subjectivity/ˌsʌb.dʒekˈtɪv.ɪ.ti/
The basing of views on personal feelings.
“There is too much subjectivity here.”
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drive/draɪv/
A strong inner force that pushes you to act.
“She has real drive.”
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inhibition/ˌɪn.hɪˈbɪʃ.ən/
A feeling that stops you acting freely.
“Alcohol lowers inhibition.”
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suppression/səˈpreʃ.ən/
The holding back of thoughts or feelings.
“Emotional suppression is harmful.”
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transference/trænsˈfɜː.rəns/
The moving of feelings onto another person.
“Therapists watch for transference.”
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cathartic/kəˈθɑː.tɪk/
Bringing relief through the release of emotion.
“Crying can be cathartic.”
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post-traumatic/ˌpəʊst trɔːˈmæt.ɪk/
Following a deeply shocking experience.
“He has post-traumatic stress.”
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agoraphobia/ˌæɡ.ər.əˈfəʊ.bi.ə/
A fear of open or public places.
“Agoraphobia keeps her indoors.”
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obsessive/əbˈses.ɪv/
Thinking about one thing too much.
“He is obsessive about order.”
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delusion/dɪˈluː.ʒən/
A false belief held despite the evidence.
“He suffers from a delusion.”
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hallucination/həˌluː.sɪˈneɪ.ʃən/
Seeing or hearing something that is not there.
“The fever caused a hallucination.”
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paranoid/ˈpær.ə.nɔɪd/
Wrongly believing others want to harm you.
“She became paranoid.”
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dissociation/dɪˌsəʊ.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
A disconnection from your thoughts or identity.
“Trauma can cause dissociation.”
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perceptual/pəˈsep.tʃu.əl/
Relating to the way you perceive things.
“It is a perceptual illusion.”
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behaviourism/bɪˈheɪ.vjə.rɪ.zəm/
The study of behaviour as learned responses.
“Behaviourism studies responses.”
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instinctive/ɪnˈstɪŋk.tɪv/
Done naturally without thinking.
“Her reaction was instinctive.”
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innate/ɪˈneɪt/
Present from birth; natural.
“He has an innate sense of rhythm.”
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predisposition/ˌpriː.dɪs.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/
A tendency to behave or think in a certain way.
“He has a predisposition to worry.”
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subliminal/sʌbˈlɪm.ɪ.nəl/
Affecting the mind without your awareness.
“Adverts use subliminal cues.”
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stimuli/ˈstɪm.jə.laɪ/
Things that cause a reaction.
“The brain processes many stimuli.”
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self-deception/ˌself dɪˈsep.ʃən/
The act of fooling yourself.
“It is pure self-deception.”
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esteem/ɪˈstiːm/
Respect and admiration for someone.
“She is held in high esteem.”
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validation/ˌvæl.ɪˈdeɪ.ʃən/
Recognition that your feelings are worthwhile.
“He craves validation.”
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reassurance/ˌriː.əˈʃɔː.rəns/
Words or actions that remove worry.
“She needs constant reassurance.”
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apathy/ˈæp.ə.θi/
A lack of interest or concern.
“Voter apathy is a problem.”
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lethargy/ˈleθ.ə.dʒi/
A lack of energy and enthusiasm.
“A wave of lethargy hit him.”
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inertia/ɪˈnɜː.ʃə/
A tendency to stay still and not change.
“Inertia kept him in the job.”
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complacency/kəmˈpleɪ.sən.si/
A feeling of smug satisfaction that stops effort.
“Success bred complacency.”
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indecision/ˌɪn.dɪˈsɪʒ.ən/
The inability to make a decision.
“His indecision cost him.”
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volition/vəˈlɪʃ.ən/
The power to make your own choices.
“She left of her own volition.”
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compulsive/kəmˈpʌl.sɪv/
Caused by an urge that is hard to control.
“He is a compulsive liar.”
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impulsivity/ˌɪm.pʌlˈsɪv.ɪ.ti/
The tendency to act without thinking.
“Impulsivity got him in trouble.”
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equilibrium/ˌiː.kwɪˈlɪb.ri.əm/
A state of mental balance and calm.
“She regained her equilibrium.”
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disorientation/dɪsˌɔː.ri.enˈteɪ.ʃən/
The loss of a sense of direction or awareness.
“Jet lag causes disorientation.”
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preoccupation/priˌɒk.jəˈpeɪ.ʃən/
A thought that fills the mind constantly.
“Money is his main preoccupation.”
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fixation/fɪkˈseɪ.ʃən/
An obsessive interest in one thing.
“She has a fixation on tidiness.”
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extroversion/ˌek.strəˈvɜː.ʃən/
The quality of being outgoing and sociable.
“Sales rewards extroversion.”
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neurotic/njʊəˈrɒt.ɪk/
Overly anxious and worried.
“He is rather neurotic.”
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melancholic/ˌmel.ənˈkɒl.ɪk/
Feeling or showing deep sadness.
“She has a melancholic streak.”
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demeanour/dɪˈmiː.nə/
The way a person looks and behaves.
“She has a calm demeanour.”
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countenance/ˈkaʊn.tɪ.nəns/
A person's face or expression.
“A smile lit up his countenance.”
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gut feeling/ˌɡʌt ˈfiː.lɪŋ/
An instinctive feeling not based on reason.
“Trust your gut feeling.”
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subconsciously/ˌsʌbˈkɒn.ʃəs.li/
Without being fully aware.
“She subconsciously mirrored him.”
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ingrained/ɪnˈɡreɪnd/
Firmly fixed and hard to change.
“The habit is deeply ingrained.”
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conditioned/kənˈdɪʃ.ənd/
Trained to react in a particular way.
“We are conditioned to obey.”
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self-conscious/ˌself ˈkɒn.ʃəs/
Nervously aware of how others see you.
“He felt self-conscious on stage.”
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psychosomatic/ˌsaɪ.kəʊ.səˈmæt.ɪk/
Caused by the mind rather than the body.
“The pain may be psychosomatic.”
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vent/vent/
To express strong feelings freely.
“He needs to vent his anger.”
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soothe/suːð/
To make someone feel calm.
“Music can soothe the nerves.”
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unnerve/ʌnˈnɜːv/
To make someone lose confidence.
“The silence began to unnerve her.”
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disconcert/ˌdɪs.kənˈsɜːt/
To make someone feel uneasy.
“His stare can disconcert people.”
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embolden/ɪmˈbəʊl.dən/
To give someone courage.
“Such wins can embolden him.”
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demoralise/dɪˈmɒr.əl.aɪz/
To make someone lose confidence and hope.
“Defeats can demoralise a team.”
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exhilarate/ɪɡˈzɪl.ə.reɪt/
To make someone feel very happy and excited.
“Speed seems to exhilarate him.”
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steel/stiːl/
To prepare yourself mentally for something hard.
“She had to steel herself for the news.”
Using mind & behaviour words in English
Psychoanalytic vocabulary is precise in ways ordinary usage has flattened, and the pair worth fixing first is suppression and repression — one is deliberate and one is not. The page also separates narcissism from egotism, notes that neurosis is no longer a diagnosis, and explains what agoraphobia actually is, since almost everyone gets it slightly wrong.
What to watch out for
Suppression is conscious; repression is not
To suppress a thought or feeling is to push it away deliberately: He suppressed his irritation. To repress it, in the psychoanalytic sense, is to exclude it from consciousness without choosing to — which is why repressed material is said to surface indirectly. Ordinary usage blurs the two, but in any psychological context the distinction is the point.
Narcissism, egotism, egoism
Narcissism is excessive self-absorption and need for admiration, and it has a clinical form as a personality disorder. Egotism is talking and thinking about oneself excessively — a social fault rather than a diagnosis. Egoism is a third word and belongs to ethics: the doctrine that self-interest is the proper basis of action. Only the first two are insults.
Neurosis is historical; agoraphobia is not about spaces alone
Neurosis was dropped from mainstream diagnostic manuals decades ago and survives as an everyday word for anxious temperament rather than as a clinical category. Psychosis remains current and means loss of contact with reality. And agoraphobia is not simply fear of open spaces: it is anxiety about situations where escape would be difficult, which is why it often keeps people at home.
Words learners mix up
Psychological vocabulary at C1 is mostly about precision on states other people can observe. These clusters cover four ways of doing nothing, five ways of losing your grip, and the verbs that change how somebody feels.
Doing nothing: four different reasons
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| apathy | Not caring. The problem is motivation — nothing seems worth doing. | Widespread apathy among younger voters. |
| lethargy | Not having the energy. Physical rather than emotional, and often a symptom. | The lethargy lasted for weeks after the illness. |
| inertia | The tendency to keep doing what you were already doing. From physics, and it applies to institutions as readily as people. | Bureaucratic inertia defeated the reform. |
| complacency | Not acting because you wrongly believe everything is fine. The only one of the four that involves a mistaken belief. | Success bred complacency. |
These are genuinely different diagnoses, which is why they matter in an essay: apathy needs motivating, lethargy needs treating, inertia needs a push, and complacency needs disproving. Indecision sits apart from all four — the person wants to act and cannot choose.
Losing your grip on what is real
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| delusion | A fixed false belief held despite evidence. About what somebody thinks is true. | A delusion that the broadcasts were addressed to him. |
| hallucination | Perceiving something that is not there. About the senses, not belief — you can know it is unreal and still see it. | The fever brought hallucinations. |
| dissociation | Feeling detached from your own body, thoughts or surroundings. A defence response, often after trauma. | Episodes of dissociation during the trial. |
| disorientation | Not knowing where or when you are. Usually temporary and often physical in origin. | Brief disorientation after the concussion. |
The line between the first two is the one that gets blurred: a delusion is a belief and a hallucination is a perception, so somebody can hallucinate without being deluded about it. In everyday English delusion has softened into ordinary self-deception — delusions of grandeur — which is a long way from the clinical sense.
Verbs that change how somebody feels
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| unnerve | Makes somebody lose their confidence or calm. Takes a person as object, and implies unease rather than fear. | The silence unnerved him. |
| disconcert | Throws somebody off balance briefly. Milder and more social — usually surprise rather than threat. | She was disconcerted by the question. |
| demoralise | Destroys morale over time. Its object is usually a group, and the effect is cumulative. | The cuts demoralised the whole department. |
| embolden | Gives somebody the confidence to act. The direct opposite, and often used of consequences the speaker regrets. | The lack of response emboldened them. |
| steel | To prepare yourself deliberately for something hard. Reflexive — you steel yourself. | He steeled himself and opened the letter. |
Only steel is something you do to yourself; the rest are done to you, which is why they appear so naturally in the passive. Note that exhilarate belongs to the same family of effect-verbs but is purely positive — it means to fill with excitement, and it is nearly always in the past participle: exhilarated.
Collocations that sound natural
Several nouns here take one fixed verb, and a couple of them have moved into ordinary workplace and self-help English carrying that verb with them.
validation
seek validationexternal validationcrave validationa need for validation
Uncountable in the psychological sense. Note the unrelated technical sense of checking that something is correct.
equilibrium
restore equilibriumemotional equilibriumupset the equilibriumregain equilibrium
Uncountable, and borrowed from physics and chemistry. The plural equilibria appears only in technical writing.
demeanour
a calm demeanoura professional demeanourhis whole demeanour changed
British spelling keeps the -our. It means outward manner and bearing — how you come across, not how you feel.
inhibition
lose your inhibitionswithout inhibitionsocial inhibition
Usually plural when it means social restraint. Singular and uncountable in the technical sense of a process being held back.
predisposition
a genetic predispositiona predisposition toa predisposition towards
Takes to or towards. It means an increased tendency, never a certainty — which is exactly why it is used about genetics.
gut feeling
go with your gut feelinga gut feeling thattrust your gut
Informal but entirely standard. Trust your gut drops the noun and is the commonest form in speech.
Formal, neutral or informal?
This vocabulary spans working clinical terms, words retired from psychiatry but alive in ordinary English, and one pair that learners reverse constantly.
- self-conscious vs self-awareReversed constantlySelf-conscious means uncomfortably aware of being watched — it is a difficulty: too self-conscious to dance. Self-aware means having genuine insight into your own character, and it is a compliment. Writing that a leader is self-conscious when you mean self-aware inverts the praise.
- psychosomaticWidely misunderstoodA physical symptom with a psychological component. It does not mean imaginary or faked — the pain is real, and saying so is part of using the word responsibly.
- subliminalTechnical · popularly inflatedBelow the threshold of conscious perception. The word survives mainly in claims about subliminal advertising, whose effects are far weaker than popular belief holds.
- catharticFrom drama · now generalProviding release through the expression of strong emotion. Originally Aristotle’s term for the effect of tragedy, and now used of anything from a good cry to a difficult conversation. The noun is catharsis.
- countenanceLiterary · archaicThe face, or its expression. Belongs to older narrative prose. As a verb it survives in formal use meaning to tolerate or approve: the board would not countenance the delay.
- ventInformalTo express strong feeling freely: vent your frustration, or intransitively, I just needed to vent. Conversational, and out of place in a clinical or academic description.
- innate / ingrained / conditionedThree originsA useful trio: innate means present from birth; ingrained means fixed by long habit and hard to change; conditioned means learnt through repeated association. Only the first is biological.
- neuroticClinically retiredNeurosis has been dropped from current diagnostic manuals, but neurotic thrives in ordinary English meaning anxious and over-reactive. Fine in general use; avoid it as though it named a diagnosis.
Sentences to try
Four frames from psychological writing. Check whether each term is current clinically.
- He suppressed the memory deliberately for years.
- The theory holds that repressed material resurfaces indirectly.
- The film is a study in narcissism rather than simple vanity.
- Greater self-awareness was the stated aim of the programme.
Questions about mind & behaviour vocabulary
What is the difference between suppression and repression?
The difference is whether you chose it. Suppression is the conscious, deliberate act of pushing an unwanted thought or feeling out of your mind: She suppressed a laugh. Repression, in psychoanalytic theory, is unconscious — the mind excludes material from awareness without any decision being made, which is why the person is unaware it has happened. Ordinary English uses the words loosely and often interchangeably, but in psychology, and in any essay discussing Freud, the conscious-unconscious split is the whole distinction.
What is the difference between narcissism and egotism?
Narcissism is a deep preoccupation with oneself, combined with a need for admiration and often a fragile sense of self-worth; it has a recognised clinical form as narcissistic personality disorder. Egotism is the social habit of talking and thinking excessively about oneself — a fault of manners rather than a psychological condition. A third word, egoism, is unrelated to both and belongs to moral philosophy, where it names the position that acting in one’s own interest is rational or right.
What does "agoraphobia" actually mean?
Not simply fear of open spaces, which is the usual assumption from the Greek agora, meaning marketplace. Clinically it is anxiety about situations where escape might be difficult or help unavailable if panic occurs — crowds, public transport, queues, being far from home. That is why it frequently results in someone avoiding leaving the house, which is the outcome rather than the definition. The -phobia suffix is highly productive in English and forms both clinical terms and informal coinages.