Depersonalization: a selective impairment of self-awareness

Depersonalization is characterised by a profound disruption of self-awareness mainly characterised by feelings of disembodiment and subjective emotional numbing. It has been proposed that depersonalization is caused by a fronto-limbic (particularly anterior insula) suppressive mechanism--presumably mediated via attention--which manifests subjectively as emotional numbing, and disables the process by which perception and cognition normally become emotionally coloured, giving rise to a subjective feeling of 'unreality'. Our functional neuroimaging and psychophysiological studies support the above model and indicate that, compared with normal and clinical controls, DPD patients show increased prefrontal activation as well as reduced activation in insula/limbic-related areas to aversive, arousing emotional stimuli. Although a putative inhibitory mechanism on emotional processing might account for the emotional numbing and characteristic perceptual detachment, it is likely, as suggested by some studies, that parietal mechanisms underpin feelings of disembodiment and lack of agency feelings.     

Depersonalization disorder: a functional neuroanatomical perspective

Clinical reports of depersonalization suggest that attenuated emotional experience is a central feature of the condition. Patients typically complain of emotional numbness and some patients ascribe their feelings of unreality to a lack of affective "colouring" in things perceived. Recent neuroimaging and psychophysiological studies support these assumptions as they show both attenuated autonomic responses in depersonalization, and decreased activity within neural regions important for the generation of affective responses to emotive stimuli. Furthermore, findings from neuroimaging studies indicate increased prefrontal cortical activity in depersonalised patients, particularly within regions associated with contextualization and appraisal of emotionally-salient information rather than mood induction per se. Taken together, these finding suggest that symptoms of depersonalization, and in particular emotional numbing, may be related to a reversal of normal patterns of autonomic and neural response to emotive stimuli.     

Interoceptive Cue Exposure for Depersonalization: A Case Series

Cognitive-behavioral treatment for panic disorder relies heavily on interoceptive exposure. Specifically, therapists induce physical symptoms associated with panic in order to produce habituation to those sensations. Many common symptoms of panic are easily induced, such as increased heart rate and dizziness. However, depersonalization is a difficult symptom to induce in the office. Three uncontrolled cases are presented here where a novel intervention, the use of 3D glasses, was used to successfully induce depersonalization with positive effect. The application of the procedure resulted in rapid habituation within session, and all three patients had significant reductions in panic following treatment. Additional research is necessary to examine the application of this, and other, novel methods for inducing depersonalization as part of a comprehensive approach to treating panic and other psychiatric conditions where depersonalization is present.     

Depersonalization: Standing in the Spaces Between Recognition and Interpellation

Depersonalization is the experience of profound estrangement and alienation from Self and Reality. Although highly prevalent in our postmodern world, the syndrome of depersonalization has been systematically understudied, misdiagnosed, and unsuccessfully treated. In this paper we summarize our theoretical conclusions after a decade-long empirical study of this population and discuss both etiology and recommendations for treatment. Our main objective here is to place what psychiatrically we would consider pathologies of personhood within the larger context of culture. We include a clinical vignette to demonstrate how we work with the premise that depersonalization is not only a private event. Perhaps more than other problems-in-living, it reveals the centrality of the individual's relationship to discourse, the State, and the culture in which we breathe. We discuss depersonalization and the dissociative structuring of the mind as psychological responses to particularly problematic experiences around subjection and conclude with the function of shame and humiliation in maintaining and resisting (in the political sense) this pressure to fragment.     

Neglected Burnout Dimensions: Effect of Depersonalization and Personal Nonaccomplishment on Organizational Commitment of Salespeople

As boundary spanners, salespeople experience stressful situations on a regular basis. Prolonged exposure to stress is known to lead to burnout. This research focuses on two neglected dimensions of burnout, namely, depersonalization and personal nonaccomplishment, specifically as they relate to salespeople. A sample of 221 French salespeople is used to explore the link between depersonalization and personal nonaccomplishment on a salesperson’s organizational commitment after controlling for emotional exhaustion, role conflict, and role ambiguity. Results from structural equation modeling indicate that role conflict positively influences depersonalization, whereas decision latitude has a negative influence. Decision latitude also negatively influences personal nonaccomplishment and role conflict moderates this relationship. Both depersonalization and personal nonaccomplishment negatively influence organizational commitment. Managerial implications are provided.     

Toward the Clarification of the Construct of Depersonalization and its Association With Affective and Cognitive Dysfunctions

Little consensus or systematic research exists regarding the symptoms that constitute depersonalization and its association with affective and perceptual dysfunctions. A scale was constructed to measure depersonalization experiences reported in the literature and four items representing psychotic symptoms. Five factors representing different types of depersonalization emerged: Inauthenticity, Self-Negation, Self-Objectification, Derealization, and Body Detachment. Based on the factors, scales were constructed; these scales have internal consistency ranging from .78 to .84. Each of these factor scales was factorially distinguishable from psychosis and correlated between .48 and .58 with the Jackson and Messick (1972) Feelings of Unreality Scale, suggesting divergent and convergent validity. Inauthenticity, the most frequent and pervasive form of depersonalization experience, was best predicted by a cognitive style featuring intense, critical examination of self and others. In contrast, Self-Objectification was best predicted by thought disorganization and perceptual distortion and was experienced somewhat infrequently by relatively few subjects. All forms of depersonalization were associated with depression, except Inauthenticity.     

Effects of Gendered Language on Gender Stereotyping in Computer‐Mediated Communication: The Moderating Role of Depersonalization and Gender‐Role Orientation

This experiment examined what situational and dispositional features moderate the effects of linguistic gender cues on gender stereotyping in anonymous, text‐based computer‐mediated communication. Participants played a trivia game with an ostensible partner via computer, whose comments represented either prototypically masculine or feminine language styles. Consistent with the social identity model of deindividuation effects, those who did not exchange brief personal profiles with their partner (i.e., depersonalization) were more likely to infer their partner’s gender from the language cues than those who did. Depersonalization, however, facilitated stereotype‐consistent conformity behaviors only among gender‐typed individuals; that is, participants conformed more to their masculine‐ than feminine‐comment partners, and men were less conforming than were women, only when they were both gender‐typed and depersonalized.