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Idealization

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Updated June 05, 2008

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Definition: A process of attributing overly positive qualities to another person or thing.

In psychiatry and psychology, idealization refers to the psychological process of coping with the anxiety caused by ambivalent feelings by having periods of time in which the object of ambivalence is instead viewed as perfect, or as having exaggerated positive qualities.

Idealization often alternates with the opposite process, devaluation, in which the object of ambivalence is viewed as worthless or as having exaggerated negative qualities.

Pronunciation: eye-deal-ize-AY-shun
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