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de- +‎ real +‎ -ization or derealize +‎ -ation

Noun edit

derealization (countable and uncountable, plural derealizations)

  1. (psychology) The psychological symptom in which the world appears to be unreal, and the patient has a sense of detachment from it.
    Coordinate term: depersonalization
    • 2008, Robert E. Hales, The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Pub, →ISBN, page 680:
      Derealization frequently co-occurs with depersonalization disorder, in which affected individuals notice an altered perception of their surroundings, resulting in the world seeming unreal or dreamlike.
  2. (The process of) making unreal, in general; detachment from reality or realness.
    • 2015, Michael Malek Najjar, Arab American Drama, Film and Performance: A Critical Study, 1908 to the Present, McFarland, →ISBN:
      The derealization of Arab Americans created the conditions whereby, after the attacks of 9/11, the American public was willing to allow, and sometimes become complicit in, their government's detention, extradition, and torture of Arabs and Muslims []
  3. The loosening of the bonds of (an electron) so that it can move freely among a group of atoms; delocalization.
    • 1976, R. O. C. Norman, Electron Spin Resonance, Royal Society of Chemistry, →ISBN, page 162:
      This section develops a theme mentioned [] in the previous section, namely the derealization of the unpaired electron away from the formal radical centre []
    • 2002, Prashant V. Kamat, Dirk M. Guldi, Karl M. Kadish, The Exciting World of Nanocages and Nanotubes: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Fullerenes, Nanotubes, and Carbon Nanoclusters, The Electrochemical Society, →ISBN, page 709:
      Indeed, cyclic derealization of π-electrons is at the heart of aromaticity. For benzene, it is found that the derealization of the density is greater between para-related carbons, [] than between meta-related atoms, []

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