Definition
Disenchantment is the collapse of an idealized image — the moment a person stops seeing another as flawless and begins to see them plainly. It is the predictable counterpart to idealization: every illusion sustained well enough eventually meets the ordinary reality it concealed.
Greene treats disenchantment as the natural lifespan of seductive idealization. The distortion that made early attraction so intense cannot hold indefinitely, and its collapse is often experienced as loss, even betrayal.
Why it matters
How it works
Idealization works by filling gaps — unknown qualities get painted in flattering colors, often with the perceiver's own wishes. Disenchantment is what happens when those gaps fill with actual information. The real person, being ordinary in the way all people are ordinary, cannot match the projected image, and the mismatch registers as disappointment. The constructive reading is that disenchantment is also a correction: it replaces a fantasy with a real person who can be known. Relationships that survive it do so by building on the real person rather than mourning the lost illusion.