23 replies to this topic

[surfingisfun001]

Individuation -

"In developmental psychology - particularly analytical psychology - individuation is the process through which a person becomes his/her 'true self'. Hence it is the process whereby the innate elements of personality; the different experiences of a person's life and the different aspects and components of the immature psyche become integrated over time into a well-functioning whole. Individuation might thus be summarised as the stabilizing of the personality."

This is what happened to me 3 weeks before I started experiencing DP. Now it's like the exact opposite.

Did this happen to anyone else before DP?

[ValleyGirl]

I actually had the opposite experience. I remember writing a blog post about how I felt like I was losing my identity.

[Pablo]

For me it was like the structure of individuation fell apart and I reverted back into an immature psyche, which I couldn't handle.

But I guess the process of individuation can't have been very well done in the first place which is why I fell apart so easily, but hopefully I can rebuild in a healthier way

[flipwilson]

The summer of 06 was an amazing journey for me. It was self discovery and confidence. I do believe i was in the process of individuation consciously and subconsciously. I had finally beat my OCD which was related to my identitiy and was learning how to become the artist I never thought i was. I was in the midst of planning to move out of my parents house for the first time at 26 and I had just quit my shit job to explore my possibilities. It was at this point that I decided to smoke a joint with friends. I did not use drugs for any reason and I did not plan on doing so after this moment. It wasn't for the sake of getting high but a conscious effort to do something that the old me would never do. I was doing it as testament to just do something different, to not be afraid. Oh cruel cruel irony.lol.

I don't believe individuation process had completed yet and the fragile house of cards I had built was toppled by the intense drug trip. I too feel as if my brain reverted back to the immature version of myself, the one I thought I had successfully destroyed the previous year. All the hard work I had put into creating a new confident me was crushed in about 5 minutes.

[JoCZker]

Individuation is term used by Jung and his followers. It means becoming yourself, as you should be. (whole) if you want more information on this, try some of his works. But i have one "bad" information for you. As Jung believed, nobody will ever become absolutely complete and himself. If you want something interesting about individuation and depersonalisation, try for example book from Edward F. Edinger - Ego and archetype. Personally, Jung and analytic psychology was/is most interesting to me from huge scale of psychic theories.

[JoCZker]

<<Double post>>

[resinoptes]

Individuation is term used by Jung and his followers. It means becoming yourself, as you should be. (whole) if you want more information on this, try some of his works. But i have one "bad" information for you. As Jung believed, nobody will ever become absolutely complete and himself. If you want something interesting about individuation and depersonalisation, try for example book from Edward F. Edinger - Ego and archetype. Personally, Jung and analytic psychology was/is most interesting to me from huge scale of psychic theories.

I had the same experience, maybe individuation requires a little depersonalization, but if the internal conflict is too evenly matched, you can get stuck, like an irresistable force meeting an immovable object, something has to give.

Dayadhvam: I have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison

(From The Waste Land)

[resinoptes]

In retrospect I built my own personal Tower of Babel. And reality put me in check. I thought I could build my tower to reach to the Heavens. But I was humbled to the Earth.
[/quote]

Yes yes yes!!!

I did that my whole life, since dp, I still have all the knowledge I accumulated before, but it feels that the centre has been ripped out of it.

In the end there is only so much an 'I' can do.

Think Mephistopheles.

The soul is not the 'I'.

I knew this before dp, but only partially, knowing it experientially is the painful and overwhelming part.

[gill]

I don't believe in a true self. I believe the self changes over time based on experiences.

[snow storm]

I'd say I was in the middle of an individuation process. I had been grappling with identity isseus for a long time. I'd say I was pretty far away from my authentic self back then but I was realizing more and more how to live more in tune with myself when I got dp and I felt pretty good about myself just before I got it. So I guess that was quite an anticlimax.

[snow storm]

Well I was raised as an Atheist. But when I started smoking pot it was like I found a religion. I would smoke so much pot, I was smoking 3-4 times a day. I started smoking by myself at night in my room while reading philosophy books like Plato's "The Republic". I would take down little notes for myself. And eventually I started making notes about how to improve myself. I would go to school the next day and work on my personality and confidence with what I learned the night before. It was like I was sculpting a new me out of the old me. Well I quickly became rather popular, where before I was very shy. I still felt shy, but I just forced myself to talk to everybody I saw in the hallways, and make all the funny jokes in class. Well school turned to summer vacation and I was reaching all new heights in "self theory", (individuation), and putting it to practice. Well long story short, in July, I fell from a very high state of mind, right into depersonalization. I was so high on life and self at that point, that the best weed my friends could find didn't effect me at all. But it took like a week for a total transformation from Heaven (individuation) to Hell (depersonalization). I started becoming paranoid. But the total shift happened over one night, and I would be DP since to this day.

In retrospect I built my own personal Tower of Babel. And reality put me in check. I thought I could build my tower to reach to the Heavens. But I was humbled to the Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

In the Tower of Babel Myth, the people of Earth come together to Build a Tower that reaches to Heaven. God sees what they are doing and realizes that Mankind is effectively proclaiming that they are more powerful than God/Universe/Nature/Reality. So God comes down and destroys the Tower.

Yeah or you could say it's a classic tale of hubris, like in the myth of Icarus from the greek mythology.
I practised a form of healing and I kind of delved too deep into it. It made me feel so powerful and full of compassion and I thought all my problems would just dissolve in the light of this energy. They didn't...

[resinoptes]

Yeah or you could say it's a classic tale of hubris, like in the myth of Icarus from the greek mythology.
I practised a form of healing and I kind of delved too deep into it. It made me feel so powerful and full of compassion and I thought all my problems would just dissolve in the light of this energy. They didn't...

I have always identified with Icarus.

But, Icarus fell and drowned and that was it.

Our situation is somewhat different...

[<VET>TheGame]

Highly interesting guys.
I actually after the dissociation i had when i got DP from potsmoking had the same kind of "high on ego" Kind of life. I had to be the king at everything io did to feel like i was somebody. When i after the dissociation started to study jungian psychology to get rid of the "neurosis" that was the after effects of the dissociation i stated overly analyze myself. Witch lead to Dp coming back and manifesting in everyday life.

I believe that the search for individuation is important and it will strengthen your psyche. and send peace to your mind.

Coming down to earth is a vital part in this i believe. And i believe i have DP alot as a result of analyzing my emotions and my behaviour.
I am certain that when i have rid myself of this habit that it will lead to no more suffering and therefore a glimpse of enlightenment.
I wont say this for sure as i dont know how i will build myself yet. But i think that my quest for killing the ego has been successfull so far.

And i would like for it to stay that way...The ego is only a subject for suffering or clinging to the material dimension. And i would rather live and be the space in between my thoughts and emotions as that creates no suffering due to total acceptance of what life and DP brings..

[newyork]

Well I was raised as an Atheist. But when I started smoking pot it was like I found a religion. I would smoke so much pot, I was smoking 3-4 times a day. I started smoking by myself at night in my room while reading philosophy books like Plato's "The Republic". I would take down little notes for myself. And eventually I started making notes about how to improve myself. I would go to school the next day and work on my personality and confidence with what I learned the night before. It was like I was sculpting a new me out of the old me. Well I quickly became rather popular, where before I was very shy. I still felt shy, but I just forced myself to talk to everybody I saw in the hallways, and make all the funny jokes in class. Well school turned to summer vacation and I was reaching all new heights in "self theory", (individuation), and putting it to practice. Well long story short, in July, I fell from a very high state of mind, right into depersonalization. I was so high on life and self at that point, that the best weed my friends could find didn't effect me at all. But it took like a week for a total transformation from Heaven (individuation) to Hell (depersonalization). I started becoming paranoid. But the total shift happened over one night, and I would be DP since to this day.

In retrospect I built my own personal Tower of Babel. And reality put me in check. I thought I could build my tower to reach to the Heavens. But I was humbled to the Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

In the Tower of Babel Myth, the people of Earth come together to Build a Tower that reaches to Heaven. God sees what they are doing and realizes that Mankind is effectively proclaiming that they are more powerful than God/Universe/Nature/Reality. So God comes down and destroys the Tower.

Funny... I did about the same thing, not after reading philosophy books though. I was reading Daniel Goleman's books on Emotional and Social Intelligence and Malcolm Gladwell's books. I felt like I was transforming. Then DP not too long after. There's so many of us that have these similar experiences with a rapidly changing self before theres GOT to be some sort of psychoanalytic reason behind it and therefore a psychoanalytic way of treating it (my psychoanalyst btw says its treatable.)