The Search for Self

Personality

Talking to a Schizoid Personality

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on June 30, 2022

Schizoid splits into opposite parts. Therapy works through a cold and aloof appearance to understand inner fantasies and anxieties.

Schizoid splits into opposite parts. Therapy works through a cold and aloof appearance to understand inner fantasies and anxieties.

Psychoanalysis

Depersonalization and Psychoanalysis

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on November 29, 2020

Psychoanalysis opens up a way to find the lost — depersonalized — parts of “I” in the unconscious and integrate them back to complete personalization.

Psychoanalysis opens up a way to find the lost — depersonalized — parts of “I” in the unconscious and integrate them back to complete personalization.

Loneliness

Digital Depersonalization in the Time of Social Isolation

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on May 14, 2020

The pandemic changed the balance between the real world and virtual imagery, making a person more susceptible to digital depersonalization.

The pandemic changed the balance between the real world and virtual imagery, making a person more susceptible to digital depersonalization.

Should marijuana be blamed for depersonalization-derealization? Or should it be recognized as an aid in coping with the burden of depersonalization?

Body Image

“At Odds with My Body”

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on May 12, 2019

Relationships with our own body are delicate and difficult. Somatic depersonalization is a hidden driver of body image disorders including anorexia, dysmorphia and hypochondria.

Relationships with our own body are delicate and difficult. Somatic depersonalization is a hidden driver of body image disorders including anorexia, dysmorphia and hypochondria.

Identity

From Self to Selfie

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on December 17, 2018

We used to be Selves. This was in the age of BC: Before Cell Phone. Now, in the age of AC, After Cell Phone, we are Selfies.
Can identity be lost between Self and Selfie?

We used to be Selves. This was in the age of BC: Before Cell Phone. Now, in the age of AC, After Cell Phone, we are Selfies.
Can identity be lost between Self and Selfie?

Adolescence

Teens, Marijuana, and Depersonalization

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on July 17, 2018

A teen smokes weed and ends up with a strange shift of existence, not just another turn of an altered consciousness; It is the disorder of depersonalization and derealization.

A teen smokes weed and ends up with a strange shift of existence, not just another turn of an altered consciousness; It is the disorder of depersonalization and derealization.

Friends

Digital Depersonalization

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on January 26, 2018

Living in two homes—old material and new digital—we are balancing on the edge of reality and virtuality. The disturbance of this balance can lead to digital depersonalization.

Living in two homes—old material and new digital—we are balancing on the edge of reality and virtuality. The disturbance of this balance can lead to digital depersonalization.

Autism

To Say "I" Means To Be Alone

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on August 12, 2017

Loneliness seems a transient step to self identity that could include depersonalization-like feelings of detachment and autism/introversion-like feelings of isolation.

Loneliness seems a transient step to self identity that could include depersonalization-like feelings of detachment and autism/introversion-like feelings of isolation.

Mindfulness

Virtual Reality as a Mirror of Depersonalization

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on April 23, 2017

Negative mirroring between cyber-generated virtual reality and the psyche-generated virtual unreality, or depersonalization, opens the way to the quest for consciousness and self.

Negative mirroring between cyber-generated virtual reality and the psyche-generated virtual unreality, or depersonalization, opens the way to the quest for consciousness and self.

Philosophy

Depersonalization as Philosophical Awareness

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on October 31, 2016

Feeling "unreal" can lead one to reflect on the world, self, and consciousness.

Feeling "unreal" can lead one to reflect on the world, self, and consciousness.

The painful experience of unreality safeguards from a danger.

Freudian Psychology

Freud had DP at the Acropolis; Today Teens at Venice Beach

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on July 22, 2015

Physical and physiological stressors - bright light, overheating, dehydration, sudden climate change, spinning or fever - can precipitate fleeting feelings of unreality of oneself and the surrounding world. These transitory non-pathological episodes are characteristic for adolescents. Sometimes the episodes foreshow the full blown depersonalization-derealization syndrome.

Physical and physiological stressors - bright light, overheating, dehydration, sudden climate change, spinning or fever - can precipitate fleeting feelings of unreality of oneself and the surrounding world. These transitory non-pathological episodes are characteristic for adolescents. Sometimes the episodes foreshow the full blown depersonalization-derealization syndrome.

The cause of depersonalization has not been identified, but many precipitating factors that contribute to the development of feeling unreal are well known.

The new DSM-5 has changed the name for depersonalization disorder and its diagnostic criteria. Does it deepen understanding of feeling unreal and improve the diagnostics and treatment of this painful condition?

Trauma

Depersonalization and DSM. Part I – before the DSM-5.

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on November 26, 2013

Depersonalization is one of the most painful and difficult to define conditions. How to fit its notorious uncertainty and ambiguity in the frame of rigor and clarity of psychopathological classification? This post explores the journey of depersonalization throughout DSMs from the DSM-I of 1952 to the DSM-5 of 2013.

Depersonalization is one of the most painful and difficult to define conditions. How to fit its notorious uncertainty and ambiguity in the frame of rigor and clarity of psychopathological classification? This post explores the journey of depersonalization throughout DSMs from the DSM-I of 1952 to the DSM-5 of 2013.

Anxiety

Phenomenology of Myself

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on July 8, 2013

The history of Depersonalization begins 133 years ago. It happens neither in clinical setting nor in scientific lab. A poet and philosopher Amiel described it in his diary, "The Journal Intime," as a form of philosophical search for self rather than morbid condition. His poetic introspection still stimulates debates about the dialectics of self-consciousness and reality.

The history of Depersonalization begins 133 years ago. It happens neither in clinical setting nor in scientific lab. A poet and philosopher Amiel described it in his diary, "The Journal Intime," as a form of philosophical search for self rather than morbid condition. His poetic introspection still stimulates debates about the dialectics of self-consciousness and reality.

Trauma

One Tear Of a Child: Children's Vulnerability After Newtown

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on March 5, 2013

Children's vulnerability and the role of media in the Newtown Elementary tragedy.

Children's vulnerability and the role of media in the Newtown Elementary tragedy.

Therapy helps turn depersonalization reflection into a tool of self-realization.

Anger

Hardship and Discontent of Depersonalization

Elena Bezzubova Ph.D. on August 19, 2012

Suddenly reality escapes you. You feel like a strange to yourself. Your feelings and thoughts are foreign and world around is unfamiliar.Finally you learn that you have Depersonalization Disorder only to realize that medicine does not have a cure for your suffocating unreality.

Suddenly reality escapes you. You feel like a strange to yourself. Your feelings and thoughts are foreign and world around is unfamiliar.Finally you learn that you have Depersonalization Disorder only to realize that medicine does not have a cure for your suffocating unreality.