The Collaborative International Dictionary
Introspect \In`tro*spect"\, v. t. [L. introspectus, p. p.
introspicere to look into; intro within + specere to look.
See Spy.]
To look into or within; to view the inside of.
--Bailey.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1680s, from Latin introspectus, past participle of introspicere "look at, look into" (see introspection). Related: Introspected; introspecting.
Wiktionary
vb. (context intransitive English) To engage in introspection.
WordNet
v. reflect on one's own thoughts and feelings
Usage examples of "introspect".
Critics of the scientific use of introspection have raised the legitimate problem that when the introspecting subject is compelled to reply to the questions of the experimenter, this not only biases the observations and responses but also carries the implicit message to the subject that all the questions are answerable.
Their objective solution to the fallibility of introspection was to apply external, artificial constraints on their introspecting subjects, thereby reducing the sophisticated, human ability of introspection to a primitive, robotlike process of internal monitoring.
In other words, the more one can go within, or the more one can introspect and reflect on one's self, then the more detached from that self one can become, the more one can rise above that self's limited perspective, and so the less narcissistic or less egocentric one becomes (or the more decentered one becomes).