Detachment from face

[Liminality]

I was just wondering if anyone related...The happy face and type thread got me thinking...

From my earliest memory, right up untilI was about...13...14, I didn't associate with my face, hardly at all, I'd try to remember it and would only vaguely recollect having brown hair and glasses. I'd have to look in a mirror, and be surprised at the person I saw, that it was 'me'. The big mind f*ck was when I realised I had mannerisms, THAT was ODD. I don't reall know how to put it into words...

I guess that this was my face, and I somehow had control over it, but had been completly unaware of this 'control' for years and years...like this way of people seeing into my brain I was completely oblivious to.

FWIW, I also had a very skewed body image until even after then, but I can't work out the deal with my face, or how the two are linked really...Yet they both kind of started becoming more realistic for the same reason (looking in a mirror and registering how I looked, for real, not what I thought I saw)...

 

[Lady_X]

i'm beginning to think this is most definitely an n thing...we are so in our heads that we just don't focus on the outer that much...but i think you do reflect outwardly what you feel inwardly...so...i see how they match up in that way.

does that even make sense?

 

[Liminality]

Ahh, I getcha, it's kinda...autoprojection...

Come to think of it it's like how depression sucks all the vavavoom out of colous, and makes things 2D, and love does the opposite...

The N disease, it's fun , it means we can make all sorts of jokes about faces melting from the HORROR, being so hot you're on fire and telling people it's good they dont look like one when they say they feel like a buscuit (because I might have to bite you) and so on

 

[Lady_X]

yes exactly that! haha...i think it might also be why i personally think facial expressions are so interesting and when i am paying attention to people and things around me...it's all so profoundly bizarre and interesting...because i'm looking beyond...you know? it's all so telling...you can actually see the thoughts streaming through someones mind all over their face....how weird! right?

 

[Laurie]

It's rather bizarre to be able to see what people are thinking.

I agree, I'm rather detached from my whole body. Actually after taking self portraits for a while I am more able to recognize my face and how it reacts to "me." Wow, I sound like a freak.

 

[Liminality]

I can't do the whole reading people thing, I see too many possilities and my brain second guesses all of them.

Sounding like a freak; far better than sounding needlessly mean or anything to that effect.

It's a strange thing to see thoughts personified...actually...this is what you were just saying Elaur, AHA, although I only say it in regards to my own face.

 

[Lady_X]

hey elaur i've heard you mention that before...so you started seeing how your emotions/ thoughts were expressed on your face? that's interesting...was that the point of it...or what?

 

[lamp]

I relate. Additionally, my left eye has much better vision than the right. So I physically feel like my face is deformed: from my visual perspective, the area around my right eye feels shrunken and the area around my left feels like it protrudes a bit. My 'center of vision' feels like it is slightly left and forward of where it 'should' be.

 

[Oom]

This is interesting. I've always wondered why people thought I had weird looks on my face. Do you think that Ne has to do with it, or Ni?

 

[Liminality]

I'm exceedinly Ne...so I'd say that, but who knows...

 

[Laurie]

hey elaur i've heard you mention that before...so you started seeing how your emotions/ thoughts were expressed on your face? that's interesting...was that the point of it...or what?

No point, really, just a creative outlet. Most of the theory of it is that you want to be forced to take a pic every day, and you are always there with you. I was in a very active crazy group with mostly good photographers so it made it really fun.

 

[Lady_X]

that sounds cool elaur...and lamp...that sounds...unsettling lil bit...funny but...weird...

and...ne or ni...i have no idea.

 

[raindancing]

From my earliest memory, right up untilI was about...13...14, I didn't associate with my face, hardly at all, I'd try to remember it and would only vaguely recollect having brown hair and glasses. I'd have to look in a mirror, and be surprised at the person I saw, that it was 'me'. The big mind f*ck was when I realised I had mannerisms, THAT was ODD. I don't reall know how to put it into words...

How weird to hear someone else talking about this. It's funny, the thought never crossed my mind that other people would have had a similar experience.

Probably up to a similar age of 14 or so, I also had the lack of identity with my physical self. I would forget what I looked liked, and then when I looked in the mirror it would be a shock, almost like I was looking at a stranger. I remember deliberately making an expression with my face, and watching the response in the mirror... it felt uncomfortable, almost like I was spying on someone else.

Particularly through the puberty time period, I would be shocked at how different my face looked each time I saw it in the mirror.. it would be this older person looking back, not me at all.

I would sometimes wonder how I could be so unaware of my appearance, since I brushed my teeth morning and evening in front a mirror. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I must not actually pay any attention to it during those periods and that my attention must only be drawn to my reflection occasionally, maybe not often enough to make the changing image seem like the same person?


I ended up having pretty bad self image problems throughout my teenage years, but my INTP husband really helped me get over that... acceptance without regard to physical appearance, I think.

Now when I look in the mirror... I guess I recognize the face more than I did when I was younger, but it still feels like something quite separate. I can recognize that it is my face, but it's not me.

 

[nanook]

little concept fix:

the object of identification (called subject, actually) on one stage becomes the object of perception on the next higher stage.

so to become aware of your body, you must die as a bodily entity, dis-identify with it, must not remain in "identity with your physical self", you have to transcend it, thereby identify with your psychic self/subject (which is the next stage). the psychic subject "has" a body, "owns" a body, calls it "MY body", you are not really your body, but "in a way" you are, because it's yours. but it's and IT isn't it. an object.


in the meanwhile you can be identified with psychic images, that reflect your physical face, that are automatically associated with the face. you can imagine looking like that actor, when you do that face, or this cartoon figure when you do that other face. then you can die to that identification as well. you are not brad pitt, LOL

 

[Kingfisher]

i absolutely identify with my face, every part of it is completely me. and i could draw a pretty accurate self-portrait without a mirror, i'm sure.

faces are really interesting to me, i mean a physical manifestation of your self? how great is that?
i really go in for the idea of a complete meshing of body and mind. i mean, your body acts on these intangible thoughts and feelings and impulses from your mind, but your mind also relies on your body to gather information to stimulate it. it is such an awesome give and take.

also i like to look at my reflection. a lot.
you know, in mirrors, car windows, somebody's sunglasses. whatever.

Additionally, my left eye has much better vision than the right. So I physically feel like my face is deformed: from my visual perspective, the area around my right eye feels shrunken and the area around my left feels like it protrudes a bit. My 'center of vision' feels like it is slightly left and forward of where it 'should' be.

that's really cool, i have never thought of my face/body in remotely that way. i like it, it's very intriuging.
i have bad vision also, but when i look in a mirror i feel like my eyes have a very strong impression. i have never thought about actually feeling my bad vision in my eyes. i am thinking about it now, and if anything my eyes feel very powerful , because they are the main way i take in information, i am a very visually oriented guy.