idealisation
Seeing through rose-tint
Idealisation is the British spelling of idealization—the act of regarding or representing something as perfect or better than it really is.
We idealise people, relationships, or the past, glossing over flaws: His idealisation of childhood ignored how miserable he'd actually been.
In psychoanalysis, idealisation is a defence mechanism where the mind splits objects into wholly good or wholly bad.
Extreme reverent admiration
- hero-worshipUncritical excessive admiration
- venerationProfound admiring respect
- romanticizingPortraying as more appealing
- exaltationIntense joyful elevation
adulation · deification · worship · lionization · mythologizing · apotheosis · hagiography · sanctification
Imaginative mental wandering
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- daydreamConscious fantasy while awake
- chimeraUnrealistic fantasy or hybrid
mirage · self-deception · naivety · quixotic · unattainable · impractical · rose-colored · escapism
Total absence of defects
- paragonFlawless model to emulate
- epitomePerfect representative of type
- quintessencePurest embodiment of something
- archetypeOriginal model for copies
exemplar · impeccability · pinnacle · standard · model · prototype · utopia · zenith
Mental creation of ideas
- generalizationDeriving principles from examples
- abstractionDistilling to essential qualities
- theorizationConstructing explanatory models
- intellectualizationReasoning away emotional responses
schematization · simplification · modeling · typification · systematization · formalization · rationalization · categorization
idolization
Extreme reverent admiration
- hero-worshipUncritical excessive admiration
- venerationProfound admiring respect
- romanticizingPortraying as more appealing
exaltation · adulation · deification · worship · lionization · mythologizing · apotheosis · hagiography · sanctification · embellishment
fantasy
Imaginative mental wandering
- illusionMisleading sensory impression
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- daydreamConscious fantasy while awake
chimera · mirage · self-deception · naivety · quixotic · unattainable · impractical · rose-colored · escapism · utopianism
flawlessness
Total absence of defects
- paragonFlawless model to emulate
- epitomePerfect representative of type
- quintessencePurest embodiment of something
archetype · exemplar · impeccability · pinnacle · standard · model · prototype · utopia · zenith · consummate
conceptualization
Mental creation of ideas
- generalizationDeriving principles from examples
- abstractionDistilling to essential qualities
- theorizationConstructing explanatory models
intellectualization · schematization · simplification · modeling · typification · systematization · formalization · rationalization · categorization · reduction
idealisationrealism
Accepting things as they are
objectivity · pragmatism · level-headedness · matter-of-factness · clear-sightedness
idealisationdemonisation
Portraying as wholly evil
vilification · devaluation · disparagement · denigration · depreciation
idealisationdisillusionment
Bitter loss of faith
disenchantment · demystification · debunking · cynicism · disabuse