Week Eleven: Case(s)

Robin Williams' recollection of her Joshua
tree experience is a perfect case that
can be used to explain the synchronicity frame
seen throughout my research paper. 

    The frame used in order to explain the deja vu phenomenon is the synchronicity theory by Carl Jung. In order to explain this theory, I used a case from author Robin Williams, who wrote a book about graphic design. To emphasize the importance of graphic design, the author describes a time when once she became aware of something (like how fellow graphic designers are aware of graphic design), she saw it everywhere and noticed it in a higher volume of instances. In her recollection, the author describes a time when she becomes increasingly aware of trees she initially thought to be foreign and in no way a part of her daily life--but, once Williams became aware of their existence, she immediately felt surrounded by Joshua trees. After describing her past memory of receiving and studying her tree identification book, the author continues to describe an event that shows striking similarities of synchronicities. The author says that “Once I was conscious of the tree--once I could name it--I saw it everywhere” (Williams 11). Her description of the increased likeliness of recognizing the Joshua tree directly parallels the Jungian theory’s explanation of the synchronicity phenomenon. By introducing this story, the author emphasized how being a proficient graphic designer is important since those involved in the profession are hyperaware of the aspects and mechanisms of design--since professionals are consciously looking for graphic design strategy, it is important to understand the basics to avoid making noticeable mistakes.

    This case is important to my study because it heavily parallels the synchronicity theory. Just as the author has, those who experience waves of synchronicities only become aware of the object/event once they consciously observe and make sense of its appearance. The only reason for an increased recognition of such things is your own mental awareness that they exist; once you know they are there, your mind begins to subconsciously look for and recognize the figments that cause feelings of synchronicity. After some time, an increased awareness seems as if it is meaningful to its experiencer, and thus her conscious mind takes note of the occurrences.

The case study involving a man with
anxiety disorder is a great ladder
between attaching significance to
an experience and having it occur more often
as a result.

    The Williams case is an important explanation for my frame, but another important case in my writing is used to supplement my argument that deja vu is a subjective experience and may be impacted differently based on the psychological health of the experiencer. This case, which studies a 23-year-old man who has high levels of anxiety, proves that those who have anxiety disorder also have a positively-correlated increase in deja vu occurrences. This case concluded that the frequency of deja vu in a patient is determined by the patient's awareness of the situation, but also the increased distress caused by increasingly occurring deja vu episodes. Thus, in people with anxiety, it is easy to constantly be stressed and hyperaware of deja vu, causing a positive feedback mechanism to induce persistent deja vu.

    This case is important because it can also be connected to the synchronicity lens, since this positive feedback loop can be used to also explain Williams' experience with the Joshua trees. It is also important because it poses the possibility that those who give deja vu significance in their conscious mind may do so because having deja vu episodes are a source of anxiety, not only a result of it--those who distress about deja vu experiences may worry why they are subjected to such a phenomenon, and if these false recollection experiences may have some sort of spiritual significance. By worrying about the meaning behind deja vu, the synchronicity loop is induced and the distress factor is increased, contributing even more to an increasing frequency of events.

    The sources are cited as follows, and can be found using the links pasted below:

Wells, C., Moulin, C., Ethridge, P., Illman, N., Davies, E., & Zeman, A. (2014). Persistent                                                         psychogenic déjà vu: a case report. Journal of Medical Case Reports, 8(1), 414–414.                                                        https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-1947-8-414

https://jmedicalcasereports.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1752-1947-8-414

Williams. Non-Designer’s Design Book, The. Pearson India, 2008.

https://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151?asin=0133966151&revisionId=&format=4&depth=2 (click "look inside" above the image of the book on the left side and scroll to page 11 in the preview!)