soulsearching

See also: soul-searching and soul searching

English

Adjective

soulsearching (comparative more soulsearching, superlative most soulsearching)

1. Alternative form of soul-searching.
   • 1988 May, Morris N. Eagle, “Is Psychoanalysis a Fraudulent Doctrine?”, in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, volume 33, number 5, →DOI, abstract, page 404:

     Whatever one thinks of [Frederick Campbell] Crews's indictment, the issues he raises represent important challenges to psychoanalysis and should encourage serious, even soulsearching, thought on the part of psychoanalytic adherents.

   • 1993 August, Lilibeth MacLean, “Theater Life”, in New Beginnings:

     After a miscarriage, we went through considerable soulsearching and lifestyle changes.

Noun

soulsearching (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of soul-searching.
   • 1961, “Soulsearching in Britain”, in International Management, volume 16, number 2, page 3:

     There is a parallel between President Kennedy's election battlecry—"let's get America moving again"—and the soulsearching going on in Britain.

   • 1992, H[enry] W[illiam] Brands, “The Bottom Line: 1927–1934”, in Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 144:

     To the militarists foreign conquest offered a solution to several problems at once: how to expand markets for Japanese products, how to guarantee sources of raw materials, how to restore national self-confidence at a moment of soulsearching, and how to consolidate political power at home.

   • 2015 July, Sam Hole, “The Disciples' Call: Theologies of Vocation from Scripture to the Present Day”, in Anglican Theological Review, volume 97, number 3:

     Yet there is little hint in this set of essays (formed mainly of English Catholic voices, though also receiving North American and European contributions) of the trauma or soulsearching with regard to the idea of vocation that this decline has induced in certain other contexts.

Verb

soulsearching

1. present participle and gerund of soulsearch