1914 Chicago Tribune 2 May ii. 15/6 (heading) Psycho court's work started. New municipal bureau makes first tests and finds boy defendants defective.

1927 Variety 1 June 314 Psycho drama flops... The Compagnie des Jonchets, a private club, was over its head with the psychological drama ‘Le Souffle sur la Flamme’.

1938 N. Marsh Artists in Crime x. 148 The psycho people say one shouldn't repress things.

1959 W. S. Burroughs Let. 8 June (1993) 416 There were four psycho cases in the home and he discovered a method of treatment which he calls functional therapy. All of them are out now and cured.

1962 M. Z. Bradley Planet Savers ii. 18 ‘Within his subconscious, he built up barriers against a whole series of memories, and the subliminal threshold—’ ‘Doc, I don't understand the psycho talk.’

1986 S. Churcher N.Y. Confidential iii. 69 One of this ‘Vanderbilt's’ last addresses was determined..to have been a hospital psycho ward where..he'd been in a drug detox program.

2001 C. Glazebrook Madolescents 145 It's not fair, having to go for a psycho session when I'm a physical invalid.

1945 Yank 14 Dec. 21 You've got to be a little bit psycho to cure a psycho.

1958 J. D. MacDonald Executioners ii. 22 Maybe I didn't act worried enough... I think he's psycho.

1976 R. Barnard Little Local Murder ix. 109 That sort of bloke ought to be locked away. They're psycho, that's what they are.

1991 Entertainm. Weekly 7 June 7/2 In this summer's Backdraft, a fire investigator..interviews an incarcerated psycho arsonist..to get help in figuring out who's torching buildings around town.

1995 D. Coupland Microserfs (1996) i. 2 Nerds get what they want when they want it, and go psycho if it's not immediately available.

2002 Bliss June 40/2 I just went psycho and screamed: ‘Go on then, if you're going to do it, do it now.’

2004 T. N. Baker Sheisty 189 Chastity's been calling me all morning wit straight drama. Who knew this chick would have turned out to be a psycho bitch.

1910 N.Y. Evening Jrnl. 18 Mar. 22/3 (heading) Introducing Psycho and Sap. Psycho discovers that he has hypnotic powers and tries it.]

1919 Amer. Legion Weekly 11 July 9 (caption) ‘Psychos’ Tug-of-War... Tug-of-war for psychiatric (shell shock) patients.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §529/16 Mental, nut, psycho, psychot, a psychopathic case.

1947 Sat. Rev. Lit. (U.S.) 18 Jan. 19/3 A large percentage of ‘psychos’ were exposed to unwholesome mother-influence.

1959 C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 11 Wiz has for all oldies..the same kind of hatred psychos have for Jews or foreigners or coloureds.

1973 R. C. Dennis Sweat of Fear vii. 45 He's some kind of psycho. He gets freak vibes—you know, like pictures in the head.

1994 Surf Mag. No. 22. 72/1 He had the uncanny knack of winkling out people's most sensitive feelings and then slowly destroying them. He was a real psycho.

2005 Daily Tel. 6 Oct. 26/4 With matted hair and dowdy clothes, Penhaligon..makes a first-class psycho, effortlessly switching between attitudes of faux-worshipful subservience and sour-faced fury.

1921 R. Macaulay Dangerous Ages v. 102 ‘Psycho~analysis, I mean.’ ‘Oh, psycho... Not that insomnia is always a case for psycho, you know.’

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §534/1 Healing arts... psycho, psychiatry.

1925 A. Huxley Let. 5 Mar. (1969) 243 The psychos imagine that they have shed some light on art by affirming that the origin of art is an infantile coprophily.

1957 A. MacLeish Let. 17 June (1983) 398 Why don't you write Frost..that the psychos say he can never be brought to trial.

1994 N. Parker Parkhurst Tales iv. 41 Now they acknowledge each other, then Mick went to sit in one of the chairs outside the psycho's office.

1925 Punch 6 May 487 Intense Lady. ‘Tell me—have you ever been psychoed?’

1946 J. Cary Moonlight xix. 138 ‘It's a complex,’ said Kathy. ‘We ought to get her psychoed.’

1971 Jrnl. Marriage & Family 33 680/2 He has been ‘psychoed’ several times but was never admitted.