Editing Depersonalization (section)

== History ==
In 1904, [[Freud]] described his own experience of depersonalization experience at the Athens' Acropolis. He described the incident 32 years later, in 1936.  He interpreted his experience as an [[Defence mechanism|unconscious psychological defense]], in which he was repressing feelings of guilt for outliving his father, whose cause of death remained unknown.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Freedman |first=Jake |date=2024-05-30 |title=Depersonalisation and the Superego |url=https://www.jakekanefreedman.com/post/depersonalisation-superego |website=Jake Freedman |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724021722/https://www.jakekanefreedman.com/post/depersonalisation-superego
 |archive-date=24 July 2024 |access-date=7 January 2025}}</ref>

In his case study of the [[Sergei Pankejeff|Wolf Man]], Freud emphasized that depersonalization and derealization serve psychologically defensive functions. A young Russian man known as the "Wolf Man" experienced derealization, which is the sensation of being separated from his surroundings by a veil. This description of being separated from one's surroundings by a veil is reminiscent of [[derealization]]. This symptom was accompanied by fear of wolves. Freud's case description revolves around the man's dream of white wolves in a tree peering at him through an open window.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simeon |first=Daphne |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Feeling_Unreal/ONLyq-mVLuIC?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self |last2=Abugel |first2=Jeffrey |date=2008-11-07 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-976635-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Francis |first=Matthew |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Depersonalization_and_Creative_Writing/_i9xEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=wolf+man+freud+%22depersonalization%22&pg=PT196&printsec=frontcover |title=Depersonalization and Creative Writing: Unreal City |date=2022-07-18 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-60315-6 |language=en}}</ref>