personalism

[pur-suh-nl-iz-uhm]

noun

1. Also called personal idealism. a modern philosophical movement locating ultimate value and reality in persons, human or divine.

2. Psychology.,  an approach stressing individual personality as the central concern of psychology.

personalism

/ ˈpɜːsənəˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. a philosophical movement that stresses the value of persons

2. an idiosyncratic mode of behaviour or expression

Other Word Forms

• personalist noun
• personalistic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of personalism¹

First recorded in 1840–50; personal + -ism

Example Sentences

Since he makes it all about himself, we need to shun personalism and charisma in our ranks and make innocuous policy engineers and personnel managers like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies the faces of the Democratic Party.

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Liberals dislike personalism, preferring to place policies before personalities.

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But ruling party personalism helps elected leaders undercut these protective guardrails.

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One of the best moments of analysis comes in the discussion of Day and “personalism,” a philosophy that “insisted that each of us, driven by love, had the power to change the world simply by changing ourselves.”

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Personalism can succeed when the movement fails.

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