Better late than never! After 17 long years without news, a missing man was finally discovered in perfect health in Pirin National Park, Bulgaria. He had settled in an isolated area of the park, where he led the life of a hermit. Aline Nativel Id Hammou, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, sheds light on the mechanisms that can lead a person to cut themselves off from the world.
The man chose to voluntarily isolate himself
The “miracle” happened a few days ago. According to information collected by Turkiye Today, the man, missing since 2008 and declared dead in 2013, was found alive in the Pirin National Park. His tent was spotted by park rangers during a simple routine inspection.
When the officers ordered him to present his identity papers, he reacted aggressively, forcing the guards to call the police. Once they arrived, law enforcement discovered that the man had been “missing” for years. A death certificate was even issued to him in 2013.
Far from being unconscious or in denial, the man – apparently from the town of Rousse (Bulgaria) – had carefully organized his disappearance (and his new life!) far from hiking trails and popular places. A case
astonishing which can only question the motivations of the individual. What did he experience to want to live (so much) outside of society, cut off from everything human connection? Aline Nativel Id Hammou, clinical psychologist, gives us some food for thought.
Evaporating into nature: an extreme behavior
What could have led this man to disappear from the world like this? In reality, this voluntary distancing, which we can qualify here “evaporation“, requires active anticipation and real organization that “reflect a strong desire to question and take a step back”, says the psychologist.
“From a psychological point of view, we can associate this with extreme behavior, or even with a behavioral disorder, because we are no longer in something standardized,” precise Aline Nativel Id Hammou. And the motivations associated with such isolation can be diverse: “a wish of course for a radical change in life – accompanied by an awareness – but also sometimes a milestone, a life assessment, even a “life crisis”, which appears every ten years.
There may also be the desire to completely forget one’s past, as if there were a possibility of starting from scratch.
“This can be accompanied by an existential flight, with all that this implies in terms of questions: the past, the experience of the present, but also great difficulties in projecting oneself positively into the future,” admits the practitioner.
Isolate yourself to get away from trauma
We also observe, in some people, an almost irrepressible need to distance themselves from trauma, suffering, pain or loss. To this can be added the question of mental health: a disorder already present, or a disorder which emerges due to a psychological vulnerability linked to a particular event, such as a divorce, a separation, a professional failure or any other experience that can trigger a psychopathological disorder. “Sometimes there is even a diagnosis that has already been made for a long time,” specifies the expert.
Some people may also simply want to escape responsibilities, linked for example to parenthood or financial difficulties, or even a very complicated social situation: lack of housing, lack of money, administrative difficulties, etc. All of these elements can be combined.
“There can also be a real question of identity survival, that is to say a deep need for renewal, to be more aligned with one’s life wishes. Finally, there is the need to escape a daily life experienced as too routine, too painful or insufficiently fulfilling”, ensures the psychotherapist.
What is the psychological profile of these hermits?
Individuals who present this “need to evaporate” tend to be male. Most have experienced one or more failures on a personal or professional level.
“There is therefore a form of chronicity in these family dysfunctions, to the point that the person no longer sees any other way out of their difficulties. The presence of emotional deficiencies is not negligible here. reveals the psychologist.
Finally, when it is women (which is much rarer), it often occurs in a context of domestic violence. We also observe, according to certain data, situations linked to parenthood: mothers leave the family home due to mental overload or real parental burnout.