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...

  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...

'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 ...

  Invariants In phenomenology ( see here ) , invariants are the essential characteristics of phenomena — those aspects that remain unchanged even when the experience is observed from different viewpoints. They are the fundamental elements that make a particular experience what it is, rather than something else. For these invariants to become apparent to consciousness, the phenomenon must be examined from multiple perspectives. This movement is known as eidetic variation. By imaginatively varying the appearances of a phenomenon, we attempt to reduce the experience to that which is irreducible — its essence ( eidos,  from the Greek εἶδος ). This is the gesture of eidetic reduction . Let us take a simple example: what does it mean to experience a triangle ? A triangle may be scalene, isosceles, or equilateral; it may be large or small, colored or monochrome; it may be drawn on paper, cut from fabric, projected on a screen, and oriented in different directions in space. Despite a...

How to provoke experiences, observe them, emphasize certain aspects, and which questions to keep in mind Choose a perceptual, cognitive, or affective experience that you can deliberately provoke in a relatively controllable situation. For example, a thought (recollection or projection of a situation) that evokes a specific emotion, a perceptual experience such as an optical illusion, or playing a game at a difficulty level above your usual comfort zone—potentially triggering emotions like anger, frustration, or anxiety. Instead of simply being carried away by the experience, allow yourself to closely follow it: observe how it arises, how it transforms, and how it becomes embodied. Try to catch the exact moment when the experience begins to emerge—perhaps subtly, perhaps abruptly—and track its unfolding moment by moment. You may try to suppress the emotional expression for a few moments and carefully observe how you do it and what internal pressure arises to express it. Then, remain sti...