Definition of "individuation" [in•di•vid•u•a•tion]

• The act or process of individuating, especially the process by which social individuals become differentiated one from the other. (noun)
• The condition of being individuated; individuality. (noun)
• Philosophy The development of the individual from the general or universal. (noun)
• Philosophy The distinction or determination of the individual within the general or universal. (noun)
• In Jungian psychology, the gradual integration and unification of the self through the resolution of successive layers of psychological conflict. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There are no body cells of any kind, and an important event has not occurred, which we call individuation where these cells have started down the path of becoming a human being."
• "She called this process separation-individuation, in which the term separation refers to the infant’s gradual disengagement from a fused state with the primary love object, and the term individuation signifies the development of the child’s unique characteristics Goldstein, 1995: 117-127."
• "In The World as Will and Representation, Schopenhauer often refers to the principle of sufficient reason as the principle of individuation, thereby linking the idea of individuation with space and time, mainly, but also with rationality, necessity, systematicity and determinism."