To remove personal qualities or individual characteristics from something, making it feel impersonal or inhuman.
From de- (remove) + personalize (make personal). Entered English in the early 20th century as psychology and medicine began studying how people could lose their sense of self in certain conditions.
Depersonalization is actually a real psychological condition where people feel disconnected from their bodies or surroundings—it's like your brain's way of protecting itself during extreme stress, but the word 'depersonalize' also describes what big institutions do when they treat you like a number instead of a person.
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