personalism

American  

[pur-suh-nl-iz-uhm] / ˈpɜr sə nlˌɪz əm /

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 British  

/ 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

Etymology

Origin of personalism

First recorded in 1840–50; personal + -ism

Example Sentences

Plath and Swift, Nelson argues, have been judged by “the same script that has greeted female profusion, personalism, and ambition literally for millennia.”

From Los Angeles Times

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.”

From Washington Post

Personalism can succeed when the movement fails.

From Washington Post

As pacifists, personalism gives a pathway for heroism even when the struggle — the struggle to stop the war — is lost.

From Washington Post

Since the invasion, other experts who have studied personalism have weighed in to flesh out the picture, and to highlight that personalism is particularly dangerous when combined with the politics of oil.

From Salon