Eli Somer
Feb 8, 20191 min
We are barely one month into the new year and ICMDR has already three new scientific papers online. The latest one analysed the pictorial representations of the self and maladaptive daydreaming (MD) by nine individuals with MD who were willing to share their art work.
The self in the artwork of participants was often represented as a fragmented experience of duality: an inert, and an emotionally dismal, dreary and dysfunctional sense of existence in reality compared to an emotionally rich, lively and pleasurable experience associated with their gratifying states of consciousness. This schism was pictorially conveyed through: (1) graphic boundaries that demarcated the two distinct states of consciousness, (2) a richer palette of colours applied to represent the inner world and (3) thematically, an inner world represented as more busy and rewarding compared to a sense of emptiness or malfunction that emanates from representations of reality.
We wish to thank the members of the MD community for their ongoing eagerness to participate in our studies. This collaboration with experts-by-experience helps us us promote scientific awareness and knowledge about this under-researched and often misunderstood condition.
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