Spockian

English

Etymology

From Spock +‎ -ian.

Adjective

Spockian (comparative more Spockian, superlative most Spockian)

Related to, or characteristic of, Dr. Benjamin Spock or his parenting philosophy.
- 1960, "Now 'Dr. Spock' Goes to the White House, The New York Times, 1960 December 4:
  The Spockian influence on motherhood-at-large is, today, almost legendary.
- 1968, Frederick C. Crews, The Patch Commission, page 25:
  The Spockian ploy is to announce one's sins and then go right ahead and compound them. All the man does is shed a few crocodile tears over the parents' unhappy lot and then proceed directly with his blueprint for infantocracy.
- 1988, Nancy Pottishman Weiss, “Mother, the Invention of Necessity: Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care”, in N. Ray Hiner, Joseph M. Hawes, editors, Growing Up in America: Children in Historical Perspective, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN:
  The triumph of the Spockian dictum of a privatized child-rearing world, shorn of political concerns, may, in part, explain the vehemence with which Dr. Spock has been attacked for his own peace activities.
- 1990, Philip Elliot Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the Breaking Point, Beacon Press, →ISBN, page 100:
  They seem to be more certain that desire can be gratified than that it can be aroused — a response that probably owes much to Spockian child-rearing. In earlier times a mother responded to her child's needs when they were expressed powerfully enough to distract her from other cares and activities. Spockian mothers, however, often tried to anticipate the child's needs: […]
Related to, or characteristic of, the character Spock from Star Trek, especially in being emotionally detached.
- 1989, Howard Aiken, “Early Inventors”, in Robert Slater, editor, Portraits in Silicon, The MIT Press, →ISBN:
  And you can see from the Spockian ears and the raised eyebrows, he had a positive Mephistophelian look.
- 1997, Alex Matthews, Satan's Silence: The Second Cassidy McCabe Mystery, Intrigue Press, →ISBN, page 135:
  She bit into tough, stringy meat that had a pungent, wild taste to it. "Interesting," she commented, attempting a Spockian neutrality.
- 2009, Paul Herr, Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance, AMACOM, →ISBN, page 24:
  Most cognitive psychologists in the mideighties viewed the brain as a computer-like mechanism based on pure logic and rational thought. There was no room for emotions in their Spockian formulation.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Spockian.

Synonyms

(Benjamin Spock): Spockish
(Mr Spock): Spockish