The act of reflexively or automatically and egocentrically relating life events to oneself; the act of inappropriately interpreting events primarily in terms of oneself, usually in a negative sense. People who are unable to depersonalize tend to interpret interpersonal encounters, and even accidental events, as having special and direct reference to themselves. That is, they tend to "take everything personally." According to PARTheory's
coping subtheory, the capacity to depersonalize provides a social-cognitive (
mental representation) resource that allows rejected children and adults to psychologically process hurtful interpersonal interaction in a more benign way.
