Deconditions

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of removing previously established conditions or requirements; reversing the conditioning or training of an individual or group; causing the cessation or undoing of conditioned responses
2. Undoing or eliminating fixed requirements or stipulations that were set before; breaking or reversing learned behaviors or patterns; the act of withdrawing imposed constraints or conditioning
3. The act of lifting or canceling existing qualifications or prerequisites; dismantling or negating conditioned habits or responses; the procedure of freeing from prior conditioning or imposed criteria

Etymology: The verb "decondition" is built from the prefix "de-", meaning "reversal" or "removal," attached to "condition," which had long meant a state or requirement. The prefix does the work here: it turns a noun about established requirements into an action of undoing them. The word is a plain formation of this kind, so the parts explain its sense directly. The third-person form "deconditions" is what the verb takes when the subject is a singular "he," "she," or "it," so the sentence "the therapy deconditions the fear response" uses it in the same way as any other regular verb. Its meaning follows from the parts: to strip away a learned condition, whether in an individual or a group, so that the response it produced no longer occurs.

Synonyms: deteriorates, weakens, degenerates, declines, degrades

Antonyms: conditions, strengthens, improves, fortifies, builds