English

Noun

defusion ‎(plural defusions)

1. (psychology) The separation of an emotion-provoking stimulus from the unwanted emotional response as part of a therapeutic process, in the same way as when a bomb is "defused".

Etymology 2

From defuse (in turn from de- and fuse) and -ion, apparently by analogy with fusion, etc.

Noun

defusion ‎(uncountable)

1. (proscribed) The act of defusing.
   • 1975, Peter Wilsher and Rosemary Righter, The Exploding Cities, Quadrangle, New York Times Book Co., ISBN 023396665X, page 13

     It seemed to us to express the right mixture of urgent concern and bracing responsibility that the middle 1970s require. But as the whole book shows, the megalopolitan time bomb is ticking uncomfortably fast. There is little margin for anyone to take a leisurely defusion course.

   • 1987, Y. S. Shurakov and L. Nicholas (translators), Vladimir Karpov (author), The Commander, Brassey's, page 228

     The loss of the collections was immediately reported to General Petrov and he detailed a special team of engineers and mine defusion experts to aid the men of the 164th battalion in their search.

   • 1992, Scott M. Cutlip, “The invasion of public relations' domain by lawyers and marketers”, section 1, Communication World, International Association of Business Communicators

     Contrast Exxon's failures with johnson & Johnson's successful defusion of its Tylenol crisis - that response directed by a seasoned public relations officer - Larry Foster.

   • 1999, Elizabeth Economy and Michel Oksenberg, China Joins the World: Progress and Prospects, Council on Foreign Relations, ISBN 0876092253, page 115

     China’s long border made land mines an essential and legitimate means of defense, and the costs of converting large stockpiles and its productions lines to meet the three criteria in the revised Protocol II (detectability, self-defusion, and self-destruction) would be enormous.

   • 20C, R. K. Murthi (translator), Salma Zaidi (author), The Prophecies of Nostradamus, Pustak Mahal, Delhi, ISBN 8122304273, page 129

     The story (as all stories do) ends with the timely interception of the bomb and its defusion.

   • 2002 August 1, Sara Powell, “Nuclear-powered animosities. (Human Rights)”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, American Educational Trust

     Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, executive director of the Kashmiri-American Council, argued that the international community...made a fundamental mistake by making its primary objective the defusion of tension rather than trying to settle the issue of Kashmir.

2. Misspelling of diffusion.
   • 1946 June 29, David B. Parker (editor), A Bombing Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki, The Manhattan Engineer District, Kessinger Publishing (2004), ISBN 1419104373, page 27

     The duration of the heat radiation from the bomb is so short, just a few thousandths of a second, that there is no time for the energy falling on a surface to be dissipated by thermal defusion; the flash burn is typically a surface effect.