Disillusionment
Disillusion (lat.) Describes a disappointment or an experience perceived as negative that can lead to resignation . Disillusionment leads to a realization that recognizes a previous interpretation of the facts as wrong or even questions part or the entire previous worldview. But since the illusion is recognized as such in disillusionment , it is basically a positive ( enlightening ) experience - even if the experience of having been caught up in an error (illusion) is perceived as negative.
Disillusionment in Psychology
In psychology , the term disillusion appears within clinical pictures that are directly or indirectly related to depression , dissociation or borderline , for example . Here it often refers to the collapse of consolidating ideals or world views on which the person in question has at least partially built their previous life. However, it can also occur outside of pathological psychological problems, for example in personal crises, but especially in the so-called mid - life crisis , which is characterized by the fact that set goals are recognized as unattainable or undesirable. But even in puberty there is a "normal" disillusionment in which, among other things, the omnipotence of the educators and other authorities is questioned.
The disillusionment does not necessarily have to result in total resignation or self-abandonment, but can also lead to problems or compulsions being recognized as non-existent or at least not insurmountable.
Nevertheless, it appears almost consistently within the description of disease symptoms.
Disillusionment as a method of enlightenment
With increasing enlightenment , the number of beliefs held to be true also decreases at the same time, in the end the word “truth” even loses its Cartesian or objective position outside or above the sentence, becoming a word under words that is now also subject to language criticism . Even the Enlightenment, with its self-destruction, turns out to be an illusion.
In principle, there is always the possibility of disillusionment wherever things are questioned, for example when totalitarian beliefs or so-called self-evident reach the limits of their own limitations, i.e. where a conflict between a variety of (views) and "truths" begins, who are confronted with one another, and where there is a willingness to understand one's counterpart, the so-called “different”, without already projecting one's prejudices and opinions onto it.
The disillusionment as an apparently "destructive" part of the Enlightenment made a not insignificant contribution to its spread and the politicization of the masses, for example by portraying the Church's promises of salvation as illusions (the best-known creed is Friedrich Nietzsche's "God is dead" , who so intended to complete the Enlightenment) or questioned the “God-given” authority of the king.
Disillusionment and social criticism
Even for Karl Marx , dissatisfaction was a prerequisite for the emergence of the revolutionary subject and with it any possibility of a change in conditions in general. Dissatisfaction, however, presupposes the lack of positive prospects for the future, which can only be achieved through disillusionment. The famous saying “religion is the opium of the people ”, according to which religion prevents disillusion, can also be interpreted in this context .
Social criticisms (such as the Frankfurt School and large parts of the undogmatic (post-Marxist) left), in which disillusionment plays a role, allow illusion to appear as a means of forgetting , which camouflages itself with an infinite number of manifestations - be it by folk ideologies such as fascism , in which the self is to be drowned in a sea of uniformity, or by thoughtless consumption , through which ever new pseudo-needs are to be awakened and satisfied in order to force people into a kind of restless intoxication that gives them makes impossible to reflect on oneself and one's actions. These are primarily the criticisms of capitalism , which regard capital as a fetish and consequently do not personalize it or are morally motivated, but in some cases amount to self- realization.
In this context, the basic dissatisfaction of the person is seen as the root of his creative power.
Disillusionment within self-discovery
Disillusion is also a central motive of self-discovery , often the desire for this is only triggered by multiple disillusions. Because this is essential in order to recognize self-deception as such. Here it is used particularly in the context of dealing with one's own fantasies , dreams and ideas . But even “higher” parts of one's own thinking, such as religious or political opinions, are confronted with their “true” motives within this process, which often leads to these opinions being abandoned.