psyche, (Greek) the one who breathes ; akin to psukhein, breathe, pneuma.

This is neither mythology nor a zillion of "scientific hypotheses". Some creatures do breathe, on the most common everyday observation.

Some objects do not and the difference is seen practically every moment of one's waking life.

The pneuma seems similar to the Latin anima ; the differences of usage among authors can be usually expected. (Those, augmented by the ambiguities of this one translation or that one may be the key sources of many a thelogical or philosophic "problems).

The psyche cannot be any "thing" other than what one calls "I" (self). In other words, so understood, the term 'psyche' can (demonstrably) make sense.

Howbeit, if the Greek 'psyche' should mean anything other than "I" then one would ask of the participant in such disputes : what other than "I" is the 'psyche' to mean.

The reams of verbiage have been more recently written on such subjects are almost invariably complicating a simple question beyond anything recognisable.

Such works being called "science" is usually disproven by such facts as the absence in them of anything other than some vague meanderings by their authors (in the stead of a well-stated theory supported by verifiable reports of experiments, the least one would expect of ,i>science if the term is to obtain any meaning).

There have been, by my own reading, many a 'psychologist' who were quite reliable overall, as writers on many subjects ; but not on any 'psychology' — not such science had ever in a fact existed ; in the stead of such some sorts of mass delusion have appeared.

There have been many works on similar subjects

WPT, May 08.