derealization

American  

[dee-ree-uh-luh-zey-shuhn] / diˌri ə ləˈzeɪ ʃən /

noun

Psychiatry.

1. an alteration in perception leading to the feeling that the reality of the world has been changed or lost.

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Etymology

Origin of derealization

1940–45; de- + realization, originally in the phrase feeling of derealization, as translation of German Entfremdungsgefühl (Freud)

Example Sentences

Since then, the user said he had changed, “mainly from the anxiety and sense of derealization and hopelessness.”

From Seattle Times • Mar. 17, 2023

I understand these reactions, because derealization can be unsettling, even terrifying.

From Scientific American • Jun. 14, 2022

Whatever derealization means to us, however we cope with it, we’re surely better off if we can talk about it openly, as Camille and others do in her brave, revealing film.

From Scientific American • Jun. 14, 2022

Her psychiatrist, who had prescribed drugs to treat bipolar depression, told Alison her daughter was also showing signs of derealization, a disorder sometimes associated with trauma, in which people think their surroundings are not real.

From Washington Post • Feb. 12, 2022

In one pre-covid-19 study of over a thousand adults in rural North Carolina in 2001, nearly 1 in 4 reported depersonalization or derealization over the past year.

From Washington Post • Dec. 17, 2021