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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
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By's post reminded me of a query I meant to launch here before my cyber meltdown distracted me. There are times when I'm out driving, or even walking sometimes, when suddenly, and for no apparent reason, the utterly familiar takes on this strange aura of total, raw, unfamiliarity, sometimes even to the point of acutally becoming disoriented in my mind's eye for a few seconds, actually asking myself "where am I?" until the familar snaps back into focus. It's a peculiar sensation that I find intriguing, actually. But I guess other folks experience this too...the familiar becoming totally unfamiliar for a few seconds or more...suddenly, you don't know where you are, even though you're on a most familiar stretch of road, and everything just looks totally unfamiliar for awhile, and then it comes back into familiar focus. But is there a word for this? (and, no, it's not vertigo  ) This is a serious proposition though...and if there's not a word for this experience can we coin one?
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Would this be a mild form of dissociation?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There's also jamais vu (never seen) and presque vu (almost seen) for which I have Catch-22 to thank. Whether they're legit terms I wouldn't know. YCLIUNTYKWTLU.
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old hand
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old hand
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deja va.
(now where was I...)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Whether they're legit terms I wouldn't know. [re: jamais vu & presque vu]
gosh, you mean French ain't legit?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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French ain't legit?
That's a whole nother question.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
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I agree that jamais vu (never seen) correctly describes this sensation. There is a word for this in English, too: stoned.
With language, if you say a word over and over again out loud it can induce the effect.
"Those French! They have a different word for everything!" -- Steve Martin
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
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stoned
Yeah, I meant to put "trippin'" next to vertigo by the tongue emoticon, 'cause I figured somebody was going to bring that up...no, this has nothing to do with any kind of drug induced hallucinatory state (although I suppose it could be applied to that, as well). That's what makes it so curious and intriguing. When something familiar suddenly looks totally unfamiliar. When driving it happens more at nighttime than during the day.
But what makes something familiar?...repetition. What suddenly strips all the registered repetition away to make something look unfamiliar again, if only for a few moments? Isn't this more like something returning to its original state of perception...i.e. original state. Maybe the trigger for the word or term is in there somewhere (returning to an original state).
I think dissociation is the closest so far.
deja vu: you feel like you've seen (or done) something before
(???): you feel like you've never seen something before even though you know it well
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Well dissociation would describe what I meant about saying a word out loud over and over again. It dissociates the phoneme from the meaning.
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