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Depersonalization/Derealization

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AS IF Depersonalization and derealization are dissociative experiences frequently associated with intense and prolonged states of anxiety and stress , emerging as an adaptive response of the organism to such conditions. In depersonalization , the person experiences a sense of distancing from themselves, as if disconnected from their own body, emotions, or thoughts. Derealization , in turn, refers to an alteration in the experience of the world, which comes to be perceived as strange, artificial, lifeless, or “unreal,” even though the person knows, at a cognitive level, that nothing has in fact changed. In both cases, these are not delusions nor a loss of contact with reality, but rather a profound modification in the quality of lived experience . My Experience I experienced continuous symptoms of depersonalization and derealization for five years (from 2004 to 2009), as a consequence of a period of extremely intense anxiety. At the time, I was almost obsessively engaged in observing ho...
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EMDR and Phenomenology

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An alternative explanation for the functioning of EMDR therapy based on phenomenological insights EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapeutic approach created by Francine Shapiro, widely used in the treatment of trauma, especially PTSD, but also applied to anxiety, phobias, grief, and disturbing emotional experiences. Basically, the patient is asked to evoke a disturbing memory ( image, thought, emotion, and bodily sensation ) while receiving alternating bilateral stimulation, mainly through guided eye movements (right–left), although alternating taps on the hands or alternating sounds in the ears can also be used. A possible alternative explanation, grounded in phenomenological insights, for the effects observed in EMDR can be formulated based on the somatodynamic organization of emotional experience. Here, I start from the hypothesis, supported by phenomenological observations, that emotions generally seem to have bodily pathways of tension organizatio...
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Inside vs. Outside Attention

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  Attention from the Inside and from the Outside I notice that there are at least two distinct ways of directing attention to the body: One seems to “ come from inside ,” and the other, “ from outside .” As if attention moved along different axes — one as if it traveled through the body from within, and the other as if it traveled through the body from without, yet both reaching the same point. "From inside" : attention is oriented through an activity in the throat region, moving from its interior and proceeding inward toward the part of the body on which it focuses. This subtle inner posture  seems to be more closely related to emotions (see emotion  and attention ). "From outside": the movement in the throat seems first to ascend toward the eyes — which tense slightly — and, in this way, attention projects outward, then turning back toward the part of the body to which it is directed. In this configuration, perception tends to concentrate more on the surface o...
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Intuition

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'Sixth Sense' Intuition Intuition is a form of “knowing” (or a feeling of knowing ) that arises instantly, without relying on deliberate logical reasoning. It manifests as a sensation or emotion based on unconscious experiences and information, which may take shape as some kind of mental image and guide our decisions and actions. It can emerge as a hunch that something will go well and be positive (accompanied by emotions such as surprise  and excitement ) or, conversely, that something will go wrong and turn out badly (manifesting as sudden fear/anxiety or anguish ). At other times, it appears as a subtle feeling, which I call a ‘sense of conformity,’ when it has a more cognitive character. Intuition may or may not be confirmed. However, the focus here is to describe the experience of intuiting regardless of its truth — it is the experience of instantly receiving an answer or sensing an event, along with the feeling that it is, in some way, in accordance with the reality ...
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Creativity

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Creativity  arises from unique combinations of knowledge , reasoning , imaginations , experiences , and perceptions . To be creative is to go beyond the obvious, exploring new perspectives and finding unexpected solutions. It is the ability to generate new, original, and/or useful ideas — at least for the person who conceives them at that moment. Even if the idea has already been conceived and developed by someone else before, if it's new to the person creating it now — meaning they have no prior knowledge of it — they are still engaging their creativity. As mentioned in the description of this blog , what truly matters here is not so much the content of the idea (or of any experience) — whether it is good or not, whether it is absolutely original or not — but rather the experience of the process itself — in this case, the creative process. Creativity is everywhere Creativity manifests itself in a wide range of fields — such as the arts, philosophy, science, everyday problem-solvi...
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Surprise!

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Surprise , in my view, is also an experience that is difficult to capture phenomenologically — as is, for example, the state of flow or joy as plenitude — but for different reasons. Flow and joy as plenitude are difficult to access because they are rare states, and flow , in particular, tends to dissolve the moment we try to observe it. Surprise , in turn, is not necessarily rare, but depends on a stimulus that is difficult to evoke voluntarily, making its occurrence unpredictable and hard to isolate for an investigative self-observation. The startle reflex — which can be seen as a reaction similar to surprise , though not identical — also depends on something unexpected, but it is easier to elicit, as it can be triggered by sudden, simple sensory stimuli, such as a loud sound or a quick movement. Even when we know a sound is about to occur, if we don't know exactly when it will happen, we can still experience the startle . Thus, surprise is different from other emotions that I ...
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