1. Breath, to breathe, to blow, (later) to cool; hence, life (identified with or indicated by the breath): The psyche is an animating principle in humans and other living beings, the source of all vital activities, rational or irrational, the soul or spirit, in distinction from its material vehicle, the body."

"Sometimes psyche is considered capable of persisting in a disembodied state after separation from the body at death."

2. In Mythology, personified by Plato and other philosophers, it was extended to the anima mundi, conceived to animate the general system of the universe, as the soul animates the individual organism.

"St. Paul (developing a current Jewish distinction between spirit or breath, and nephesh, soul) used psyche as the lower or merely natural life of man, shared with other animals, in contrast with the spirit."
3. The soul, or spirit, as distinguished from the body; the mind and what it processes.
4. The conscious and unconscious mind and emotions; especially, as influencing and affecting the whole person: "The psyche includes both conscious and unconscious processes."
5. A term for the subjective aspects of the mind, one's self, and the soul; the psychological or spiritual as distinct from the bodily nature of humans.