Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T21:44:27.760Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Normal and Abnormal Depersonalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

W. W. Roberts
W. W. Roberts*
Affiliation:
Saxondale Hospital, Nottinghamshire
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper is offered as a contribution to the better understanding of depersonalization. It is divided into two sections. In the first section an account is given of the occurrence of brief episodes of depersonalization in young normal adults. In the second section a consistent interpretation of the symptoms of the syndrome itself is attempted. The two sections are loosely connected; the conclusion drawn from the study of the material in the first section—that it is the persistence, and not the nature of depersonalization which is abnormal—needs to be applied to the considerations advanced in the second. The interpretation will do as well for the brief experiences as for the established syndrome. The writer hopes that—if the interpretation is acceptable—the way will be cleared for attention to the remaining problem posed by this perplexing condition; why, in some cases, it endures. The following abbreviations are used throughout: For the depersonalization syndrome DP; for the depersonalization symptom, dp; for derealization, dr; for desomatization, ds; for the loss of feeling which frequently accompanies the other symptoms, dE; for visualization, vs, and for loss of visualization, dv; for the slowing-up of subjective time, dT.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 106 , Issue 443 , April 1960 , pp. 478 - 493
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1960 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackner, B., J. Ment. Sci., 1954, 100, 838.Google Scholar
Brain, W. R., The Listener, 1951, 45, 660.Google Scholar
Idem , Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1951, 44, 37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J. H., Selected Writings, 1931. London.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1932, 25, 611.Google Scholar
Idem , Brit. J. Med. Psych., 1935, 15, 125.Google Scholar
McCurdy, J. T., The Psychology of Emotion, 1925. London.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W., Brit. J. Med. Psych., 1935, 15, 103.Google Scholar
Roth, M., Brit. Med. J., 1959, i, 579.Google Scholar
Sartre, J. P., L'Imaginaire, 1948. 24th edition. Paris.Google Scholar
Shorvon, H. J., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1946, 39, 779.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.