impersonality

[ im-pur-suh-nal-i-tee ]

/ ɪmˌpɜr səˈnæl ɪ ti /

absence of human character or of the traits associated with the human character: He feared the impersonality of a mechanized world.

absence or reduction of concern for individual needs or desires: the impersonality of a very large institution.

lack of emotional involvement: His work reflected a certain impersonality.

lack of a personal agent or of a known personal agent: the impersonality of folk art.

the quality of not being concerned with particular persons: the impersonality and universality of his interests.

something that is impersonal.

Nearby words

First recorded in 1760–70; impersonal + -ity

Behind the impersonality of money lies an intensely personal, often compensatory compulsion.
The Brotherhood of Money|Daphne Merkin|January 2, 2009|DAILY BEAST
Although there is an element of truth in this, yet it is useless as a support for the theory of Japanese "impersonality."
Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic|Sidney L. Gulick
To his impersonality in his books and addresses, Emerson owes perhaps a large measure of his extraordinary influence.
Transcendentalism in New England|Octavius Brooks Frothingham
"Give me 1-1," she will put it, with an impersonality as fine as if she were calling for four figures.
Wisconsin in Story and Song;|Various

Advocates of "impersonality" present both conceptions, quite unconscious apparently that they are mutually exclusive.
Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic|Sidney L. Gulick
In fact, their stability and impersonality are such that they have often passed as being absolutely universal and immutable.
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life|Emile Durkheim

1769, from impersonal + -ity.