Phenomenological Descriptions

'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...

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...

'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 ...

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 ...

Embodied Simulation In this post, my focus is not on yawning itself but on the internal simulation of others' behavior , using yawning as an example to describe how I experience this mechanism. Embodied simulation is the internal representation and activation of bodily states associated with the sensations, emotions, and actions observed in others.  This mechanism, whose neural correlate is the mirror neurons, enables an experience similar to what is perceived, as if the observer were themselves experiencing or performing it. (Gallese, 2007).  Thus, instead of relying solely on abstract symbols, the brain " simulates " sensory and motor experiences within the body to understand and interact with the world. Before moving on to my phenomenological description of this experience, try to discover for yourself how this happens. 〰 Description:  In the case of yawning, when I see someone yawn (human or not), my body automatically adjusts to replicate the movement—starting with...

What do you feel when you see someone breaking their leg or falling in a way that makes it clear they've hurt themselves?  Watch the GIF below and try to perceive how you feel about it.  Before moving on to my phenomenological description of this process, try to perceive for yourself, in your own experience, how this happens. 〰 Description When I see someone getting hurt, for example, when they're falling badly, breaking their leg, or something else. I don't feel exactly the pain that the other person is probably feeling, nor the pain that I would probably feel if the situation had happened to me.  In other words, I don't feel the pain from the impact they experienced when falling, nor in the same part of the body that hit the ground. Instead, I feel a bad wave running through my body from top to bottom, probably starting with the movement in my throat, and, finally, a strange tingling ending, sometimes, in my forearms.  Other times, this happens on the sides of...

Pleasant Fragrances and Unpleasant Odors The sense of smell is a chemical sense that works through the detection of odor molecules present in the air.  When we inhale, these molecules enter through the nostrils and reach the olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity, where specialized sensory receptors detect them, generating electrical signals.  These signals are transmitted to the olfactory bulb, located in the brain, which organizes the information and sends it to other brain areas responsible for processing the perception of smell. I don’t have much to say yet about the phenomenology of smell in terms of its corporeality, but I will provide a brief description and some speculations about how I tend to perceive pleasant perfumes and unpleasant odors. Description Pleasant perfumes When I smell a very pleasant scent, there is a tendency to try to intensify this sensation.  This seems to occur through movements of the head and internal movements, especially in the throat, ...

Familiarity is the sensation or experience of recognizing something as already known or previously experienced, without necessarily being able to identify specific details or consciously recall the original moment or context.  This feeling can occur in various situations, such as when encountering a place, a person, or an object, and can be described as the impression that something is " familiar " or " common ," even if one does not know exactly why. Which is the correct logo? If you were unsure about which logo was the original and something made you choose one over the other, can you identify what influenced that decision?  Was there a ' somatic marker '—bodily signals that guide choices (Damásio, 1994)—that played a role in it? If so, what might it be? Try looking at both images again and observe what happens in yourself, noticing what makes you perceive one of them as more likely to be the correct one. Before moving on to my phenomenological description...