externalise
/eks'tə:nəlaiz/ Cách viết khác : (externalise) /eks'tə:nəlaiz/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- 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
- make external or objective, or give reality to
- language externalizes our thoughts
- regard as objective