The Search for Self

Exploring depersonalization disorder

Elena Bezzubova

Depersonalization and Psychoanalysis

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

Digital Depersonalization in the Time of Social Isolation

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

Marijuana—Depersonalization Controversies

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

“At Odds with My Body”

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

From Self to 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?

Teens, Marijuana, and Depersonalization

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.

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.

To Say "I" Means To Be Alone

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

Virtual Reality as a Mirror of Depersonalization

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.

Depersonalization as Philosophical Awareness

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

The “Airbag” of Depersonalization: Shield or Disorder?

The painful experience of unreality safeguards from a danger.

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

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.

Why Depersonalization Happens

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

Depersonalization in the DSM-5

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?

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

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.

Phenomenology of Myself

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.

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

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

Life with Depersonalization

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

Hardship and Discontent of Depersonalization

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.

From Hope to Disappointment on Being Diagnosed With DPD

The day your mysterious malady of lost self receives the diagnosis of depersonalization inspires hope. But unfortunately, you may begin a long search for cure only to discover that you suffer from one of the most treatment resistant disorders.

"I" and My Depersonalization. Comments on Your Comments.

The blog readers' comments suggest that there are four stages of dealing with depersonalization: 1. Uncertainty prior depersonalization has been diagnosed. 2. Hopes after depersonalization has been diagnosed. 3. Realization that depersonalization is a difficult to treat chronic condition. 4. Understanding and accepting life with depersonalization.

Depersonalization in the ER

The mental disorder of depersonalization could hide itself behind presentations of an alarming medical emergency with seeming physical disturbances that could lead to the ER. This type of depersonalization is known as vital depersonalization and closely connected to anxiety and pain.

Man and His Mask

The word 'persona' means mask. People with depersonalization often feel as if they wear masks. What is the relationship between one and one's mask?

Lucian Freud and Depersonalization: Dis-clothing Self

Sometimes art can see more deeply into human nature than science. The paintings of Lucian Freud open up a dimension of understanding self unknown even to his famous grandfather Sigmund Freud.

Depersonalization as a Way to Personalization

Patients who experience depersonalization describe it as the loss of the feeling "I am myself." Like breathing, we sometimes aren't aware of the "I am myself" feeling until we lose it or have difficulty recalling what it feels like.

Do You Feel Like a Stranger to Yourself?

Here's a brief introduction to Depersonalization Disorder and its symptoms.