externalization

n. 1. In psychoanalysis a defense mechanism in which aspects of the unconscious are attributed to the outer world. 2. The process of learning to distinguish between bodily self and external world in childhood. 3. A process by which a drive is aroused by an external stimulus as the smell of a bakery may make us hungry. 4. The belief that some of one's actions are attributable to aspects of the outer world and one is not personally in control of nor responsible for them. 5. In cognitive science, the process of putting one's thoughts out into the world through signs, behavior, and material artifacts.