Feeling of unreality and its contexts. The phenomenological aspects of dissociative processes

Diversity of contexts of the feeling of unreality, regarded as a phenomenological symptom of dissociative processes, is presented and discussed in the article. Seeking for the common denominator of such experiences, the author aims to relate the psychopathological tradition and non-pathological appearances of the feeling of unreality in everyday life, in the classics, as well as in relation to the research on altered states of consciousness. With reference to the concept of "directed dissociation" (Edges 2004) and the so-called "three place dissociation" (a therapeutic technique used in NLP), the author emphasizes adaptive aspects of dissociative processes. Finally, he poses a question: how should we describe, identify and understand the state of "being in complete association" with (currently taking place) mental processes