Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Introspection

Introspection , noun

[Compare French introspection.]

A view of the inside or interior; a looking inward;
the act or process of self-examination, or inspection of one's own thoughts and feelings; the cognition which the mind has of its own acts and states; self-consciousness; reflection.
I was forced to make an introspection into my own mind. — Dryden