Estrangement in Psychopathology: depersonalization, derealization, disorders of the self?

Abstract

The history of estrangement as a clinical object is very recent and concrete. It is negatively defined through the following syndromes: depersonalization, derealization and disturbances of the self. The limits that are established for its definition are very lax and unsuitable. The models that have been applied to these phenomena are explained in this paper: the model of the psychology of faculties, the model of the self-awareness as a reflective structure and the model of the consciousness as a passive synthesis. The authors propose to recover estrangement as a primary experience and to concentrate on the concepts of subject and person’s re-examination.