The Unexplained

 Abstract      This research paper explores the déjà vu phenomenon in-depth and its relation to anxiety, while also explaining how certain factors can have an effect on an individual’s déjà vu experiences. To better understand the déjà vu phenomenon, this paper seeks to find the various explanations of why déjà vu occurs and looks at research on the déjà vu phenomenon to better understand how déjà vu can impact individuals as well as the unconscious mind. This paper sheds light on the harmful effects déjà vu can have on individuals with certain psychological disorders such as anxiety, and the possibility that their experience could be taken as a warning sign, proving that déjà vu plays a significant factor in an individual’s life. This paper further discusses the idea that the memory of dreams plays a role in déjà vu, meaning that déjà vu not only affects individuals while awake but also while asleep. Works Cited Brown, Alan S. and Elizabeth J. Marsh. “Digging into D...

The documentary that I chose to watch was the Netflix series on The Mind, Explained , more specifically the episode on “Dreams”. I find dreams to be an important aspect of our lives and I do believe that dreams have a meaning behind them. I believe that certain symbols in our dreams can tell us something about ourselves and have universal meanings. This is also a theory believed by Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud as seen in the episode. However this theory is rejected by many scientists today however, there are still people who agree with Jung and Freud. In The Interpretation of Dreams , Freud points out that “Dream images were ‘disguised representations’ of our innermost desires” and most of his theories about dreams were mostly sexual. Jung on the other hand believed dreams were messages from the subconscious, but not sexual. The documentary states that he believed that “dreams contained characters that represent aspects of our inner lives”. For example, a trickster represents anxiety, a...

Visual Citation Hurvich, M. “Classics Revisited : The Ego in Anxiety (Max Schur, 1953) and, an Addendum to Freud’s Theory of Anxiety (Charles Brenner, 1953).” Psychoanalytic Review (1963) , vol. 84, no. 4, Guilford, 1997, pp. 483–521. Summary This source explains Sigmund Freud’s interpretation of anxiety, but I mainly focused on his theories of anxiety. His first theory suggests that anxiety is pathological and the result of extreme sexual frustration. His second theory explains that anxiety has both pathological and adaptive functions. Pathological anxiety involves a memory trace of a traumatic event and can be the result of substantial regression. This regression “leads to the loss of the distinction between past and present, resulting in the patient regressively experiencing in the present the terror he faced at an earlier time in his life” (Hurvich 488). Freud describes fear to be a response to danger whereas anxiety is a reaction to an unconscious psychic danger. While agreeing wi...

  Throughout my paper, I explain Sigmund Freud’s interpretation of the unconscious mind and how it relates to déjà vu and dreams. I believe that Freud’s theories are the most accurate interpretations. Freud believes that the unconscious mind holds repressed thoughts, traumatic memories, and overall unpleasant feelings such as anxiety, pain, and conflict. In relation to dreams, he believes that our dreams are able to access the unconscious and can explain a lot about us. As a counterargument, I wanted to dive into Carl Jung’s theories of the unconscious and dreams. Freud and Jung were good friends/colleagues so a lot of what Freud believed is also something that Jung believed, but there were still some disagreements between the two. Jung believes that the personal unconscious includes recalled and suppressed memories, and the collective unconscious holds our experiences or knowledge that we have had since birth. While I don’t exactly agree with his view on the unconscious, I do ag...

I believe that one of my strongest cases is the case about anxiety I wrote about in my literature review 4, but I wanted to introduce a new case that can also represent my research paper well. In order to demonstrate how the unconscious mind is powerful, I present a case that deals with how the unconscious plays a role in daydreams, déjà vu experiences, and anxiety. To set the scene, the patient in this case had experienced strange things in his life involving weird encounters with his parents. He also worked at a company, so one day he went to complain to the treasurer of the company about how his salary check has been unreasonably delayed. This complaint was a serious matter so it required a meeting. As he was sitting outside the office waiting and talking to the treasurer’s assistant (who he was attracted to), he looked out the window and observed the landscaped lawns, the patient felt familiar with the view, but all of a sudden a wave of unfamiliarity struck him making him believ...

The main theoretical frame that I plan to focus on is Sigmund Freud's concept of the unconscious mind. Since the unconscious mind holds unpleasant feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are deep within and not available at a conscious level. It can also hold our repressed feelings or hidden memories, and this in some form could be a déjà vu experience. Freud believes that since déjà vu is unconscious, “the content of the fantasy is blocked from awareness, but the sense of familiarity leaks through and results in the déjà vu experience"  (“What Exactly Is Déjà Vu?”). Freud’s interpretation of the unconscious mind also plays a role in Freud’s theories of anxiety, which is a another theoretical frame I use throughout my research paper to explain  déjà vu . His first theory suggests that anxiety is pathological and the result of extreme sexual frustration. His second theory explains that anxiety has both pathological and adaptive functions. Pathological anxiety involves a...

Visual Citation Wells, Christine E et al. “Déjà vu experiences in anxiety.” Memory (Hove, England) , 1 Nov. 2018. https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/18817/Wells_et_al_2018_Anxiety_Deja_vu_Memory_AuthorVersion.pdf;jsessionid=D2ADCE1B0EC971E328F5AC1E27A8015D?sequence=1   Summary This study demonstrates a clear connection between anxiety and déjà vu. An online questionnaire was given to a total of 352 participants and of these, 153 participants reported having diagnosed clinical anxiety whereas 199 participants did not have high levels of anxiety. A series of tests were done to ensure that the anxiety group was significantly more anxious than the control group. The questionnaire consisted of five sub-sections: 1. Demographics; 2. Questions regarding anxiety; 3. General knowledge about déjà vu and any notable experiences; 4. Several tests to measure levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and dissociative experiences; and 5. Questions about déjà ...