This is the second (research) portion of the Character profile assignment, we were supposed to relate our characters mental illness to real instances and why this may be the case.

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Brandon Vasquez

10/22/2020

Depersonalization is a psychological disorder that obscures a person’s perception of life, this obscured perception is often characterized as being “a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity.” [1] Which in turn affects a person’s sense of self whether it is their self-perception or the views they hold on the world around them. People who suffer from depersonalization experience feeling “like you are in a dream or fog; looking in the mirror and feeling detached from one’s image.” [1] This distant view that depersonalization patients suffer from causes them to–at times–lose a sense of themselves and their surroundings, they begin to wonder and feel like they don’t belong anywhere since they don’t psychologically feel as though they are present. Effective treatments for Depersonalization include “both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic,”[1] these, however, are not all that effective in really ridding a patient of depersonalization because depersonalization is so complex and is intertwined with other disorders such as depression and intensive trauma (PTSD). Which in turn leads to more extensive and specific treatment and diagnosis of depersonalization. 

In the short story “The House of Asterion” by Jorge Luis Borges we are presented with a character–named Asterion–that lives his life in a detached world of solitary confinement, he lives in a vacant home that resembles the coldness and vastness of prison, while also living a repressive lifestyle as an outcast due to his appearance as a half-bull half-man. But when he learns of a person (Theseus) who comes around to essentially kill him he is content with this idealized figure because he (Theseus) will put him (Asterion) out of his misery. This idealization of death in patients suffering from depersonalization has been statistically observed in a study conducted by Siberian researchers, “According to the Scale for Suicide Ideation of Beck, the depressed patients with depersonalization had statistically significantly higher scores regarding suicidal ideation, both active and passive, more often manifested suicidal desire, suicidal planning and overall suicidality.” [2] This outcome of higher suicide ideation could also be seen in the reason for Asterion’s contentment and satisfaction, he had finally come across the person who would take his life away, the person who would end his despairing fight between reality and a solitary state of detachment. The studies also state that “patients with depersonalization are occassionally apt to selfinjuring which shortly interrupts the horror of changed experience.” [2] According to this study, the rate of self-injury is much higher because patients want to rid themselves of their horrible feeling of detachment; kind of like just wanting to feel something. This is even seen when Asterion throws himself from the roofs of his house until he is bloody, and also why he views death as salvation.

An interesting aspect that Asterion faces is the solitude that surrounds him both outside of his home and within it, his solitude revolves around a suppressive society and an infinitely empty home. The constant rejection by the outside world and the bare loneliness he must face are what push him into his depersonalization. The hate from society forces asterion to lock himself up in his lonely home that harbors no life, which he then has to numb himself from by pretending to be with others. As shown in a study from researches at Johannes Gutenburg University “suppression intensifies the association of fatigue and depersonalization/derealization experiences.”[3] Suppressive actions such as imposing restriction on a person going outside or doing certain things cause’s fatigue in their ability to contain their depersonalization, this constant lack of freedom may cause a person to want to find a way out of their reality and so they begin to disassociate their perception on both themselves and reality. 

Through studies conducted on patients around the world, a sort of trend becomes apparent in people who suffer from depersonalization, that is their feeling of suppression that further pushes them into a detached reality and at times forces them to return from their “far off and out of this world”[1] sensation through self-harm. Depersonalization is also characterized the same way in Asterion, his numbness from solitude and the repressive society that doesn’t allow him to mingle with them causes him to harm himself just to sort of feel like he’s there. But when death comes knocking on his door, he is offered freedom from both the detached state he is in and also the grueling reality he is faced with.

Citations

[1] Simeon, Daphne. “Depersonalisation disorder: a contemporary overview.” CNS Drugs, vol. 18, no. 6, 2004, p. 343+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A199914866/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=cff2d513. Accessed 22 Oct. 2020. 

[2] Tošić-Golubović, Suzana, et al. “DOI Serbia Časopisi.” Vojnosanitetski Pregled,  2018 Volume 75, Issue 11, Pages: 1065-1069 https://doi.org/10.2298/VSP161201023T  

[3] “Researchers from Johannes Gutenberg-University Report New Studies and Findings in the Area of Depersonalization (Emotion regulation strategies moderate the relationship of fatigue with depersonalization and derealization symptoms).” Mental Health Weekly Digest, 5 Mar. 2018, p. 468. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A529742189/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=90744708. Accessed 23 Oct. 2020.

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