L’appel du vide, literally “the call of the void”, is a French phrase
used to refer to intrusive thoughts or the urge to engage in
self-destructive behavior during everyday life.[1]

Most commonly reported examples include thinking
about swerving into oncoming traffic while driving,
or feeling the urge to jump off a cliff’s edge while
overlooking one.

https://en.everybodywiki.com/L'appel_du_vide

  • Cyrus Draegur@lemmy.zipEnglish
    24·
    2 days ago

    I had no idea “the call of the void” originated from French! Neato!

    The void calls out to me constantly.

    Every day.

    All Day.

    … I figure it’s just self-test diagnostics:
    “hey, we’re still nominally functional and sane, right? Thinking about <AWFUL HIDEOUS HORRIFIC THING> gives us the badfeels like it should, right? Okay. Good.”

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      That’s a cool way of thinking about it.

      It reminds me of a discussion I had with a friend the other day. I was trying to ascertain whether other people experience mild, easily dismissable intrusive thoughts, as I do. It feels weird to call them intrusive thoughts if they’re easily dismissed — I feel like that phrase better describes thoughts that stick around and cause distress due to not going away. What I experience is fairly frequent thoughts that are like “imagine if you did [awful thing]”, and then I mentally reply “yes, that would indeed be awful, which is why I have no interest in doing that”, and then I’m fine.

      I like your framing of it as self check diagnostics. I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, but that feels like an accurate description of what goes on internally for me.

    • qaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      You know those video games where you see a flashforward of a character dying and then have to prevent that scenario from happening? It feels like that. Your brain doing risk analysis of potential dangerous situations.

  • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    8·
    2 days ago

    I am thankful for the safety feature where locking the lid also depresses a button that allows the food processor to operate, but I also keep it unplugged when the lid is off for an extra layer of redundancy.

    • filcuk@lemmy.zip
      3·
      2 days ago

      I dont really put my hands close to the blades when it’s unplugged either. One could have a brain fart and think it’s unplugged.
      Paranoid? Yes. Farted? Often. Brain? MIA