Unsentimentalizing

The act or process of removing or diminishing sentimentality from something; to approach a subject with a lack of emotional bias, avoiding excessive or cloying displays of feeling. It involves adopting a realistic, practical, and often objective perspective, prioritizing facts, logic, and reason over emotional responses. This process can be applied to various aspects of life, including art, relationships, historical analyses, or personal interactions, focusing on deconstructing the emotional overlay to reveal underlying truths or improve clarity.

Unsentimentalizing meaning with examples

• Historians, when unsentimentalizing a past event, might analyze the political motivations and economic factors, removing the romanticized narratives often built over time. This allows a more accurate understanding, potentially challenging previously held beliefs. It involves using facts and evidence in the place of the emotion surrounding a well-known historical story.
• A doctor, unsentimentalizing a diagnosis, focuses solely on symptoms, test results, and medical evidence to determine the patient's condition, rather than being swayed by the patient's emotional distress. This keeps the focus on a logical and medically sound approach to determine the best course of treatment.
• When critiquing a film, the critic might focus on the technical merits, narrative structure, and performances, unsentimentalizing the movie's emotional impact to provide an objective assessment. Removing sentiment helps find the true artistic and technical value of the work.
• In business, unsentimentalizing a failing project means objectively assessing its financial viability, market demand, and potential for recovery, regardless of the team's personal attachment. This often leads to an objective, and necessary, decision on its ultimate fate.