Definition

1. Verb:
   • To make external or objective, or give reality to: To take something internal, such as a thought, feeling, or idea, and express it or manifest it in the external, physical world.
   • To regard as objective: To attribute an internal experience or perception to an external cause, often as a psychological process.

Usage and Examples

• Verb:
  • Art is one way to externalise complex emotions. (Art provides a method to give tangible form to internal feelings.)
  • The therapist helped him externalise his anxiety by writing it down. (The therapist assisted him in making his internal anxiety concrete by documenting it.)
  • Children often externalise their fears, believing a monster is under the bed. (Children frequently attribute their internal fear to an external object like a monster.)

Advanced Usage

• In Psychology/Psychiatry: The term is often used to describe a defense mechanism or a symptom where internal conflicts, blame, or negative feelings are projected onto the external environment.
  • Some personality disorders are characterized by a tendency to externalise problems, blaming others for personal failures.
• In Business/Management: To transfer an internal function or process to an outside entity.
  • The company decided to externalise its customer service department to reduce costs. (Note: This usage is closely related to "outsource," which is a specific form of externalisation.)

Variants and Related Words

• Externalisation (noun): The act or process of making something external.
  • The externalisation of his grief took the form of a powerful novel.
• External (adjective): Belonging to, situated on, or coming from the outside.
• Internalise (verb): The opposite process; to make attitudes, behaviors, or standards part of one's nature by learning or assimilation.

Synonyms

• Project: To attribute one's own feelings or desires to another person or object.
• Objectify: To treat or regard something as an object, especially in a reductive way.
• Materialise: To come into existence; to become actual fact.
• Express: To convey a thought or feeling in words or by gestures and conduct.

Antonyms

• Internalise: To incorporate within oneself.
• Suppress: To restrain or inhibit the expression of a thought, feeling, or action.
• Introject: To unconsciously incorporate attitudes or ideas from other people or the environment into one's own personality.

Related Phrases and Concepts

• To give voice to: To express a feeling or opinion publicly.
  • The protest was a way for the community to externalise its frustration, to give voice to its demands.
• To act out: To express unconscious feelings or impulses through one's actions, often in a destructive or antisocial way (a behavioral form of externalisation).
  • Instead of talking about his anger, he tends to externalise it by acting out.

Verb

1. make external or objective, or give reality to
   • language externalizes our thoughts
2. regard as objective