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Why is there a psychological/clinical concept or coping mechanism known as Dissociation, but as far as I can tell no 'opposite' concept? I guess hyperfocus is a thing but its not really what I'm talking about.
I ask because while I can't say that I've never dissociated in my life, the vast majority of my experience of life is basically the opposite of that. I've been present for and fully sensitive to most everything going on, perhaps overly so. If I'm feeling depressed, I'm still feeling it as 'myself.' Ditto fear, anxiety. Sometimes I have 'brain fog' but I still don't tend to feel like I'm "apart from myself" or just nonpresent, that's just viewing things through a blurry lens.
Seriously, what is the psychologically 'opposite' concept for when a person feels more 'present' and 'integrated' and 'aware' of themselves and their surroundings than usual?
Empirical psychology has little interest in characterizing phenomenological states in general, especially phenomenological states that have no relevance to any identifiable and treatable medical condition, so it's unsurprising that the vocabulary for describing these states remains underdeveloped. This is a task that has traditionally been left to philosophy.
Heidegger's Being and Time explores these themes in depth (both the experience of "everydayness" and the ways in which this experience is modified by anxiety), if you found the topic so interesting that you were inspired to approach such a mammoth tome.
I've recently been reflecting on this very topic for my own independent reasons. Although I've certainly never had anything as dramatic as a "disassociative episode", I can relate to a general feeling of being... never entirely present for things. Almost entirely present, at times. But rarely entirely so. And I'm curious about the extent to which this represents a real distinction between the experiences of different individuals, or if people might just be talking past each other (since we cannot directly become another person to verify the nature of their experience).
Just out of curiosity faceh, how vivid and comprehensive would you say that your memory (of personal events) is in general?
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