derealisation

Noun

derealization (countable and uncountable, plural derealizations)

1. The psychological symptom in which the world appears to be unreal, and the patient has a sense of detachment from it.
   • Derealization frequently co-occurs with depersonalization disorder, in which affected individuals notice an altered perception of their surroundings, resulting in the world seeming unreal or dreamlike.2008, Robert E. Hales, The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Pub, →ISBN, page 680
2. (The process of) making unreal, in general; detachment from reality or realness.
   • The derealization of Arab Americans created the conditions whereby, after the attacks of 9/11, the American public was willing to allow, and sometimes become complicit in, their government's detention, extradition, and torture of Arabs and Muslims […]2015, Michael Malek Najjar, Arab American Drama, Film and Performance: A Critical Study, 1908 to the Present, McFarland, →ISBN
3. The loosening of the bonds of (an electron) so that it can move freely among a group of atoms; delocalization.
   • This section develops a theme mentioned […] in the previous section, namely the derealization of the unpaired electron away from the formal radical centre […]1976, R. O. C. Norman, Electron Spin Resonance, Royal Society of Chemistry, →ISBN, page 162