Externalization

Externalization Definition

Externalization is a sociological concept employed by certain schools of thought, including phenomenology and some strands of Marxist sociology, to describe the process by which human beings project their thoughts, ideas, and projects onto the external world. This process involves the imprintation of internal mental states or social realities onto the objective environment, making them observable and shared.

Theoretical Context

The concept is frequently discussed within the framework of social constructionism. For instance, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, in their seminal work The Social Construction of Reality (1966), utilise externalization as a key element in understanding social processes, framing them as a dynamic interplay or dialectic between externalization and internalization.