Each week , we tell about and explain sayings in American English . Today is it different types of psychobabble . Psychobabble is a fairly new word in the English language . For about 40 years , people have been using psychobabble to describe the language of popular psychotherapy . Psychotherapists are specialists in treating mental or emotional disorders . Psychobabble can be used in areas other than the world of psychotherapy . Often these words find their way into everyday language . Sigmund Freud is said to be the father of psychoanalysis . He opened up new ways of thinking about the mind . Freud and his work on unconscious , suppressed desires also led to several new expressions . Among these is the saying “a Freudian slip .” A Freudian slip is something people say accidentally that shows their true feelings . We also call this a slip of the tongue . Freud explored the feelings that people keep buried deep inside themselves . They fail to recognize they are keeping their feelings hidden . Those feelings are bottled up inside the individual , Freud said . And sometimes these bottled up feelings come out in uncontrolled ways . Here is an example . In 2004 , Condoleezza Rice served as National Security Advisor to the president of the United States , George W . She was unmarried at the time and there were reports that she spent much of her time with the president and his wife Laura . At a dinner party one night , Rice was talking with a group of people . Sigmund Freud also defined parts of the human mind . In Freud's thinking , a mind is divided into three parts . The ego is the part of the mind that senses and reacts to changes in the real world . The superego is the part that relates to ideas about what is right and wrong and to feelings of guilt . The id is the part of our unconscious minds that relates to one's basic needs and desires . Of these three parts , it is the ego that is used in common expressions . If someone is said to be on an ego trip , they are only thinking of themselves . We also use this expression as a verb , saying that someone is ego tripping . To stroke someone's ego is to praise them in order to get what you want . For example , if your supervisor is difficult to work with , just stroke his ego . Tell him he has the best ideas and that you are learning a lot from him ! If this boss is egocentric , all those nice comments just might work . Egocentrics are people who care too much for themselves and not enough about others . Egomania is the state of being egocentric . You could say an egomaniac lives in the state of egomania . However , an alter ego is the exact opposite of an ordinary personality . For example , you could say , “She has a real Jekyll and Hyde personality . One minute , she's nice and quiet . The next she is shouting at people and insulting them .” Other personality types have made it out of the doctor's office and into American English . Take a Type A personality , for example . A Type A is said to be aggressive and very competitive . Researchers started using this expression in the 1950s when they explored the connection between Type A personalities , stress and heart disease . In the 1970s , the term Type A found its way into everyday language . Such individuals have a hard time waiting in lines , taking it easy and getting away from work . Their main concern is their career . This may sound bad . But Type A people are actually highly effective in the workplace . And perhaps people who are a little Type A are also good at learning English .