How To Know Your Disallusioned

Based on the previous post on disappointment, I’ve decided to follow the same pattern with disallusionment. As a part of my own inner work, and my work of helping others, I realize disallusionment is a common emotion. Just as common, is our tendency to mislabel it as frustration or sadness. Hence, this post.

The word allusion was originally used as a synonym for the word parable, which is defined as: a placing beside. When someone told a parable, they were placing a story or tale beside a real world scenario to draw out deeper meaning and significance. Jesus of Nazareth was a master at this, by the way. An allusion is similar to a parable due to its power to create a mental picture. When we allude to something, we are inviting someone to imagine and reconcile it’s reference with something else.

Therefore, to be disallusioned is to be without a meaningful defining reference point. It is the feeling we get when an imagined referent story is absent. This is a significant emotion because we are wired for narrative and story. As kids, we were told stories, which shaped how we viewed the world and our place in it. Now, imagine a world without stories. That’s disallusionment.