idealization

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idealization

[ī‚dēl·ə′zā·shən]

(psychology)

A conscious or unconscious defense mechanism in which a person overestimates an admired aspect or attribute of another person.

idealization

see IDEAL TYPE.

Idealization

the mental formulation of concepts of objects that do not exist and are not realizable in reality, but ones for which prototypes exist in the real world.

The process of idealization is characterized by abstraction from properties and relations necessarily inherent in objects of concrete reality and by the introduction of attributes that cannot in principle belong to their real prototypes into the content of the concepts being formed. A point may serve as an example of a concept that is the result of idealization. It is impossible to find in the real world an object which is a point, that is, an object having no dimensions. The concepts “straight line,” “circumference,” “an absolutely black body,” and “inertia” are of an analogous nature. It is said of concepts that are a result of idealization (frequently they are simply referred to as idealizations) that in them idealized (or ideal) objects are conceived. Having formed a concept of a given object by means of idealization, it is possible henceforth to operate with it in discourse as with an object that really exists. Idealization makes it possible to formulate exact laws and to construct abstract schemata of concrete processes in order to understand them more thoroughly; in this sense the method of modeling is inseparable from idealization.

It is a characteristic of scientific idealization, distinguishing it from sterile fantasy, that idealized objects produced through it are under certain circumstances interpreted in terms of nonideal-ized (real) objects. It is practice (including that of systematic scientific observations and experiments) that confirms the correctness of the process of abstraction giving rise to concepts of idealized abstract objects and that serves as a criterion of the fruitfulness of idealization in cognition.

REFERENCE

Gorskii, D. P. Voprosy abstraktsii i obrazovanie poniatii. Moscow, 1961.

B. V. BIRIUKOV

References in periodicals archive ?

Nonetheless, there are philosophical and epistemological works where we can find a very clear analysis of the difference existing between abstraction and idealization and, in this respect, the work of Ernst Cassirer is quite emblematic.

The concept of idealization in Ernst Cassirer's theory of knowledge

If a science applied idealization (establishing idealizing assumptions) without any limitations, then scientific statements would be out of empirical tests; it would be quiet sufficient to abstract from disturbing factors always when they occur and to safe statements from falsification in this way.

Scientific progress: the principle of dialectical correspondence

192), as love "based upon an idealization of an individual, rather than upon the individual as he or she exists in reality" (Sternberg, 1988, p.

Organization of partner knowledge, its effect on passion, and the mediating effect of idealization

In the therapy itself, a kind of "bidirectional idealization" was typical: The therapist idealized the patient by focusing on the healthier parts of his or her personality but the patient's idealization of the therapist "had a hostile, demanding, coercive edge.

Common themes are found in cases involving suicide. (Idealization, Fantasies of Omnipotence)

According to Kohut, mild disruptions of admiration or idealization are necessary for healthy self-development.

Perfectionism and self-development: implications for college adjustment. (Research)

It is a matchless idealization of the team concept: We need each other to be successful, and it emboldens us to step up and assume a leadership role.

"Iron Sharpens Iron": Motivation in the weight room and beyond. (Powerline)

And as Redekop examines what Habermas thought of the ancient public, which was typically idealized in eighteenth-century discourse, he finds that Herder, notwithstanding his idealization of primordial sociability and communication, also condemns it for its susceptibility to demagoguery.

Enlightenment and Community: Lessing, Abbt, Herder and the Quest for a German Public. (Reviews: early modern Europe)

conscience consists of several interactive dimensions: psychic energy, emotional and psychological defenses, empathy, a sense of guilt, idealization, self-esteem, and moral beliefs.

ACHIEVING MORAL HEALTH: AN EXERCISE PLAN FOR YOUR CONSCIENCE

The film guards itself against wallowing, idealization and sentimentality and offers through the wide--ranging testimonials of friends and family a new understanding for the man behind the art.

Lauzon/Lauzone

Placed at the entrance to the FDR Memorial, the statue portrays Roosevelt seated in what is unambiguously a wheelchair, thus inaugurating a mode of political remembrance ostensibly free of false idealization.

A Rendezvous with Density

The following conclusions are drawn: (1) a close theoretical-practical connection is assumed to be a defining element of Constructivist Theory and can be given support independent of a Postmodernist framework by appealing to a broader notion of rationality that is objectively grounded and co-extensive with the prescriptive idealization of education, and (2) a theoretical exploration of practical cognitive and non-cognitive tools reveals a connection between these tools with prescriptive elements valuable to Constructivism and evolving education.

In Support of Constructivism: Utilizing Rational, Moral and Communicative Frameworks To Address Frequently Posited Criticisms

The book aims to attack the exclusionary support for the traditional nuclear family and the anti-feminist, capitalist values which underlie that support, by showing how families and gender identities are socially constructed and how idealization differs from reality.