psychological

[Vacskamati]

I found the following acclaim on the back of a book:

"Tense, psychological and instructive."

I started to wonder about the meaning of psychological here, and searched for it on the net. Eventually, on thesaurus.com I found that psychological could be a synonym of intellectual in the sense very smart, with other synonyms like thoughtful and inventive. However, that was the only case (and site) I have found that this meaning was implied.

I would like to ask, you, as native speakers, whether this could really be a possible meaning for the word above (because that would make some sense to me).

Thank you in advance for your comments.

 

[shawnee]

As a general comment I would say that the term 'psychological' here would give the impression that much of the drama is played out in inner dialogue rather than physical action as in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

 

[xjm]

As a general comment I would say that the term 'psychological' here would give the impression that much of the drama is played out in inner dialogue rather than physical action as in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

Hah, that was also the first example that came to my mind.

Psychological does mean something like "intellectual" in certain cases, but it's more specific. I don't think it can mean "inventive," at least not in my usage. It means more that the thing being described is concerned with (or even plays games with) the inner workings of the human mind.

 

[Vacskamati]

Thank you for your comments. I think I get it now.