Depersonalization
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In psychiatry, depersonalization (or derealization) is the experience of feelings of loss of a sense of reality. A sufferer feels that he or she has changed and the world has become less real — it is vague, dreamlike, or lacking in significance. The DSM-IV categorizes depersonalization disorder as a form of dissociative disorder.
Sufferers of depersonalization feels divorced from both the world and from their own identity and physicality. Often times the person who has experienced depersonalization claims that life “feels like a movie, things seem unreal, or hazy.” Also a recognition of self breaks down (hence the name). When a person suffers from the disorder (or the symptoms associated with it) he or she finds that when they look in the mirror, his or her face is not familiar, though logically he or she is completely aware of their identity.
The feeling is said to be like being a ghost. No matter how hard the person tries, he/she cannot feel like they are genuinly interacting with the world and can’t seem to percieve themselves as being normal. They feel like thay are trapped between the real world and death. While you’re struggling so hard to feel everything as normal again, there is a part of yourself that begs to just give up and stop the struggling. Put simply, It is an alteration in the perception or experience of oneself, so that the self is felt to be unreal; the person feels detached from reality or their own body or mental processes.
The condition is usually found in conjunction with other mental disorders, especially depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, certain neuroses, and may be engendered by use of marijuana. If reported together with more serious delusions, depersonalization is a sign of schizophrenia — an indication of the disintegration of personality. A sufferer from depersonalization can be especially susceptible to suicide, undertaking the suicidal process calmly and easily without real awareness.
People with this disorder often report that the depersonalization is stronger after waking from a nap.
The symptoms associated with depersonalization have a known connection with psychological trauma. However, if the problem develops into a disorder (persistent and recurring) then it is important to have it treated as it may lead to suicide, depression, lack of meaning, lack of joy, and general apathy.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, in his book On Killing, suggests that military training artificially creates depersonalization in soldiers, suppressing empathy and making it easier for them to kill other human beings.
Existentialists use the term in a different context. The treatment of individuals by other people as if they were objects, or without regard to their feelings, has been termed depersonalization. Determinism has been accused of this. See also objectification.
R. D. Laing used depersonalization to mean a fear of the loss of autonomy in interpersonal relationships by the ontologically insecure.
