does any one know anything about depersonalization ?
What do you want to know?
Usually, as you have probably already read, it is normally described as seeing your life like a movie, or as ‘feelings of unreality,’ or as everything seeming pale and ghostish, like you don’t really feel like a part of what is going on. It is sometimes also called ‘Derealization.’
However, I recall reading of Derealization being set as an of opposite to Depersonalization. Depersonalization is when I feel unreal, Derealization is when the world feels unreal. For example: “I am a stranger to myself,” or “I am an other from the inside” would be Depersonalization. On the otherhand, if I feel as if the world is like a museum, or a stage show, that is Derealization.
I believe that we could also call it Derealization when the meaning of a thing or word slips away. Apparently sufferers have this feeling more strongly when awaking from sleep, than when well grounded in the midst of the day. An example might be when I awake and am not immediately sure where I am. I may have been traveling exhasted for many days, and had expected to wake in Tel Aviv, but finally realize that I am in Athens; that would not really be anything to worry about. On the other hand, if I start to look at objects freakishly and can no longer decipher what the purpose of the object is (a la Nausea), that would be more severe. The “Booming buzzing confusion” would be the most extreme, or pure, form of Derealization, where all a postiriori meaning is stripped.
We can create a mini-episode of Derealization by repeating a word over and over again until I can no longer recall how it ought to sound or be pronounced. Some say the same effect can be achieved by staring at ourselves in the mirror for a very long time. Also, reading foreign words can sometimes have a Derealizing affect on us. William James mentioned this in Psychology of Religion, and also I recall reading it else where; maybe in Edeth Sitwell’s Religious Fanaticism in America, I have had this experience a few times late at night.
Another sever form of Derealization is the sense of an Imposter. A friend I know well might seem to be an imposter, I can not believe that it is really him. On a smaller level, Derealization can just be a reorganizing of my feelings towards a person, as in: “I looked at him in a new light,” or “you have become a stranger to me.”
Or if I have been away from home for a very long time, when I return, everything seems to have changed, infact nothing has changed; my old conception of the place has been flooded over by a new way of seeing it.
According to An Anthropologist on Mars, I think it was, a man who was very unable to connect his emotions to objects, due to a brain trauma, suffered sever Derealization daily. Therefore, Derealization might be considered an emotional problem, that it affects us most in times of emotional upheaval would seem to coroborate that idea.
I always imagined that a significant point of divergence between philosophy and psychology was in this area: psychology tells us that only the everyday mode of existence is reality-- whereas philosophy tells us that that reality is an illusion.
Depersonalization also has a meaning in Existentialsim which is a little like Sadism, ie, treating the Other as a Being, and not as a Nothingness or a Being-in-itself. In simple terms, treating other people as objects. I would suggest that certain cultures are more apt to behave in this way, hardly recognizing the existence of strangers to whom they have never been introduced, for example.
Are you having a problem with this? Do tell.
thank you for the wonderfull reply. am i having a problem with this… well not quite. though i do expierience the "movie’ syndrom. i do think i have a core personality, the problem is my ego is very low at times. making it hard to interact with most people.
also im having trouble feeling my emotions. iv quit smoking pot for a couple weeks now, but havent felt to much of a change. i have a feeling that alot of this will go away when i move out of my parents house.
In a nutshell, I believe it’s when a personality subsides and eventually becomes replaced due to more powerful and/or repetitive experiance contradictory to the make-up of the original personality.
Hi, as I am new to this forum I hope what I have to say might be helpful
if not unorthodox. I have practiced meditation for four years now (without
the assistance of any drugs ) One of the daytime things I practice is self
observation.In other words you are aware of yourself from a third point.
When I first started this practice it produced the symptoms for me that
many of you describe and I was scared stiff and it lasted for weeks.
However I persevered and it stabalized once I realized what was actually
happening.
There is nothing wrong with you,you have risen onto a higher level of
conciousness.The world actually is a stage and is that which needs to know
it is sick.You want an example! Look at the way we live our lives expecting
everything to turn out a certain way.Another,we design our homes to look
like a setting from IKEA IDEAL HOME CENTRE. And how come most death
row executions are set for midnight.We live life like a movie .Do you really
want to go back to that when you are sarting to wake up?
Depersonalisation: feelings of unreality and strangeness…It’s a bit like diassociation. Imagine feeling hungover and depressed - ALL YOUR LIFE. I imagine it’s similar.
My God! I am depersonalised, from now on, just call me - 879.
I don’t know anything.
I do not exist.
There is just a bunch of samsaric fluxuations here.
[after posts & threads]
- That was a test.
- Sorry, my baby brother was born today and got onto my ILP account.
- Expect no less from a mad-man.
- Who said what? I repeat only a part of all that is.
- I did not mean what I said.
Make sure to move in with people that love you, though.
Together we are everything.
Alone we are nothing.
There must be unity, UNITY!