Identity alteration: Difference between revisions

[[File:Self-concept.jpg|thumb|right|upright|238px|One's self-concept is made up of self-schemas, and their past, present, and future selves.]]

'''Identity alteration''' can be defined as the experience of one's sense of self becoming temporarily changed to feel as if constituted by different concepts than that which it previously did. For example, while a person may usually feel that they are exclusively their “ego” or a combination of their “ego” and physical body, during this state their sense of identity can change to include the external environment or an object they are interacting with. Alternatively, a person could feel as if their sense of self embodies nothing at all, which is an experience commonly referred to as [[depersonalisation]].  

The concept of '''identity''' itself can be defined as a fundamental and near universal component of human perception that provides the experience of feeling like a self, a separate system intrinsically differentiated from the external world. This feeling is commonly referred to as one's sense of identity, ego or selfhood. In general conversation, it is referred to using pronouns such as "I", "me", "mine" and "myself" as a tool for contrasting one's self from other people and any other system which is not felt to be them.