A “shrinking hysteresis loop” method, analogous to degaussing a ferromagnet, is used to depolarize a ferroelectric thin film and reach the origin, nominally the zero polarization-zero applied field state. Scanning piezoresponse imaging of the depoled state shows fragmentation into domains of up and down polarization that constitute the zero polarization state. Furthermore, the depoling method improves the left–right symmetry of the coercive field in “imprinted” samples.