Made brutal, savage, or animal-like in nature or behavior; degraded to an animal-like state.
Past participle of bestialize. From Latin bestia + Greek -ize + -ed. The term developed through philosophical literature examining human degradation and moral collapse.
Psychologists and writers used 'bestialized' to describe soldiers after traumatic warfare, suggesting trauma could literally transform a person's nature—a concept that shaped how we now understand PTSD and moral injury.
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