typeracer

A more radical strategy for escaping from unbearable reality is that of 'de-realization'. In his analysis of the big trench battles of the First World War, such as Ypres and the Somme, where hundreds of thousands died to gain a few yards of land, Paul Fussell pointed out how the hellish nature of what went on made the participants experience their situation as theatrical: it was impossible for them to believe that they were taking part in such a murderous endeavor in person, as 'themselves'.