西方主义论述非西方人对西方世界（欧洲、美国、澳洲，有时包括现代日本）的偏见以及去人性化（dehumanizing）的理解。伊恩·布鲁玛和Avishai Margalit合著的书《西方主义：在敌人眼中的西方》（Occidentalism: the West in the Eyes of its Enemies (2004)）令西方主义开始普及。萨义德的东方主义论及西方人对东方世界的偏见，西方主义则为它的反向论述。

此前的一些书籍有提及西方主义，但并没有上面所述的含意。

Occidentalism refers to and identifies representations of the Western world (the Occident) in two ways: (i) as dehumanizing stereotypes of the Western world, Europe, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Philippines., usually from the Muslim world; and (ii) as ideological representations of the West, as applied in Occidentalism: A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China (1995), by Chen Xiaomei; Occidentalism: Images of the West (1995), by James G. Carrier; and Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies (2004), Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit. Occidentalism is often counterpart to the term orientalism as used by Edward Said in his book of that title, which refers to and identifies Western stereotypes of the Eastern world, the Orient.