individuation
[in-duh-vij-oo-ey-shuh n]
- the act of individuating.
- state of being individuated; individual existence; individuality.
- Philosophy. the determination or contraction of a general nature to an individual mode of existence; development of the individual from the general.
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Origin of individuation
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
interpretationexplanationsolutionrationaleanswertranslationcommentelucidationrenderingsignificationanalogueclarificationfixingglosscueexpositioncommentarydriftcluedeterminationExamples from the Web for individuation
Historical Examples
Symmetry is here what metaphysicians call a principle of individuation.
The Sense of BeautyGeorge Santayana
It is therefore easy to discover the principle of individuation.
The principle of individuation follows, of course, from this.
Individuation,—is the unity of a thing with itself, or that whereby a thing is what it is.
The Book of CuriositiesI. Platts
This is because individuation is not the essential characteristic of the personality.
The Elementary Forms of the Religious LifeEmile Durkheim
individuation
- the act or process of individuating
- (in the psychology of Jung) the process by which the wholeness of the individual is established through the integration of consciousness and the collective unconscious
- zoology the development of separate but mutually interdependent units, as in the development of zooids forming a colony
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for individuation
n.
1620s, from Medieval Latin individuationem, noun of action from individuare, from individuus (see individual). Psychological sense is from 1909.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
individuation
(ĭn′də-vĭj′ōō-ā′shən)- The act or process of becoming distinct or individual, especially the process by which social individuals become differentiated one from the other.
- In Jungian psychology, gradual integration and unification of the self through the resolution of successive layers of psychological conflict.
- The formation of distinct organs or structures through the interaction of adjacent tissues in an embryo.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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