What does exteriorisation mean?
Exteriorisation is the process by which something internal — a feeling, thought, conflict, or impulse — is given outward, observable form. A novelist's prose, a patient's free association, or an architect's blueprint can all serve as the exteriorisation of an inner state. The noun belongs mainly to formal registers: psychology, psychoanalysis, literary criticism, and philosophy. In analytical psychology, following Carl Jung, it carries a further technical sense describing a personality type oriented toward the external world of people and objects rather than toward inner experience — roughly what Jung called extraversion. British English typically spells the word exteriorisation, while American English prefers exteriorization; both are far less common than their near-synonym externalization. Its opposite is internalisation, the drawing of outer experience into the inner world. Though rare, the word offers precision when ordinary vocabulary seems too vague.
nounThe act or process of expressing or manifesting something internal — such as a feeling, thought, or impulse — in outward form. In psychology (especially Jungian theory), the tendency to direct one's energy and interest toward the external world rather than inward.
- The act or process of giving outward form to something internal — feelings, thoughts, conflicts, or impulses.
- In analytical psychology: the disposition to focus on the outer world rather than one's inner life (contrasted with introversion).
"The diary was less a private record than an exteriorisation of his anxieties, laid out for anyone to read."
"Her paintings served as an exteriorisation of grief she could not put into words."
"In Jungian terms, exteriorisation describes a personality oriented toward people and events outside the self."
Rarely pluralised; the word normally appears as an uncountable mass noun referring to the process itself.
"Different artistic movements produced strikingly different exteriorisations of the unconscious."
Carl Jung used 'extraversion' for it in English, but the rarer word 'exteriorisation' captures the same idea: turning your inner world inside out.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of exteriorisation
Exteriorisation derives from Latin exterior, meaning 'outer', the comparative form of exterus ('on the outside'), itself from ex ('out of'). The verb exteriorise was formed on this Latin base in modern European languages, and the noun exteriorisation arose from it, likely under the influence of French extériorisation. It entered English scholarly usage in the nineteenth century, particularly in psychology and philosophy.
Related word forms
How exteriorisation is actually used
A formal, largely academic term found chiefly in psychology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and literary criticism. The spelling with -s- is standard in British English; American English more often spells it 'exteriorization' and usually prefers the simpler synonym 'externalization' outside specialist contexts.
Easily confused with exteriorisation
Externalization is the far more common everyday term for expressing inner states outwardly; exteriorisation is its rarer, more technical synonym.