Another semantic pondering.
What do you see as the difference between these two words: disillusionment and disappointment?
Have you experienced more of one or the other?
Which do you think is harder to get over and why?
Do you prefer experiencing one to the other (not that we have much choice in life, do we? But, hypothetically, if you were given a choice, would you or could you have a preference?)
How do you walk through them differently?
How do these affect your relationships differently–interpersonal relationships as well as your relationship with God?
In relationship to God, have you struggled with either disappointment or disillusionment? With one more than the other?
Have you experienced more of one or the other?
–Disappointment more.. I am pretty much a realist and don’t seem to be disillusioned much
Which do you think is harder to get over and why?
–Seems that disallusionment leads to disappointment so maybe it would be harder to get through.
Do you prefer experiencing one to the other (not that we have much choice in life, do we? But, hypothetically, if you were given a choice, would you or could you have a preference?)
–I prefer to be disappointed.
How do you walk through them differently?
–Seems that disappointment is something a bit more tangible and might be deal with in a more direct manner.
How do these affect your relationships differently–interpersonal relationships as well as your relationship with God?
–Not sure
In relationship to God, have you struggled with either disappointment or disillusionment? With one more than the other?
–Probably more frustration/misunderstanding than either of those.
Thanks, KansasBob, for your answers, which help my thought process concerning these two. Like you, I’m a realist and probably experience (and struggle more) with disappointment than disillusionment.
I find disillusionment worse than disappointment because if I’m disillusioned, it makes me feel like I can’t trust myself to make good judgments or view life clearly instead of how I want it to be.
Disappointment is often caused by other guy, but disillusionment is caused by me.
Thainamu, I smiled at my response to your response. My first thought was that disillusionment was caused by the other guy, too… But I see what you mean (and maybe I need to work on taking personal responsibiity
)
Thinking about what you’re saying, I see that disillusionment does bring with it a sense of my own vulnerability to my own imperfect judgments.
Wow, what great questions. I love the way your mind thinks about these things to even come up with the questions and all the nuances in them. I think instead of responding to each individual questions, I’ll just riff for a little bit on my thoughts of the subjects.
Disillusionment, to me, is a more powerful state of being. This is because, at least for me, when I become disillusioned, it’s because a firmly held belief about some idea or person has become completely uprooted. It’s hard to know where to go from there. I can’t imagine being disillusioned by something or someone who didn’t mean that much to you or didn’t form the basis for a bunch of other beliefs in your life. So, yeah. It’s kind of a killer for me to realize that I’ve been totally disillusioned by something.
I’m with the others above who shared that disappointment seems like something that would be easier to handle inside of a relationship. It feels less threatening to me because it seems like you could just say, “I was disappointed by that” and reach some understanding, face the reality of what happened, and move on. Even when it comes to God, telling him that I’m disappointed by something that happened or didn’t happen (which he obviously allowed either way) can be hard (especially when I’ve tied a lot of hope up in that thing happening or not happening), but I feel a release once I confess my disappointment to him. I feel like I can start getting on with the reality that has been handed to me instead.
As much as what I’ve just said might make it sound like I prefer experiencing disappointment to disillusionment, I also find disillusionment can be a good thing in my life. After all, if I’m overemphasizing a belief in someone or something that isn’t worth that emphasis, I count it a good thing in the long run to have found that out, no matter how disarming or confounding it is to learn that in the moment and in the aftermath of sorting through that follows. I guess what I’m saying is that because disillusionment usually impacts some of my most core beliefs, finding myself disillusioned means I will now spend time picking up the pieces of those shattered core beliefs so that I can work with God on rebuilding them in a more worthy direction. And I think that is time well spent.
Ah, I so appreciate this kind of dialogue. Thank you all for indulging me. Thinking about what you’ve written, Christianne, tied into my earlier thoughts, I like the thought that disillusionment has a hopefulness to it, because it brings with it the possibility of “illusionment”–actually coming to see real reality, and that is always a good thing, I would say.
So maybe disappointment is easier to bear or face in the immediate situation. But disillusionment, by nature, is actually accomplishing a good thing.
I don’t know. Thinking out loud here, with the helpful contributions you all have made.
I read something about the difference between these two a while ago, and I can’t remember exactly what it was. But I’m liking thinking more about it here with you all.
I am thinking…..I kind of relate the two words and it seems to me that disillusionment seems to follow disappointment in my life. I feel that I have been disappointed a lot over time and you know where I have most been disappointed??..if I can say this…in the church with people I thought were supposed to know better, Christians. I am been shocked, saddened, and overwhelmed at times with disappointment in people whom I have believed in. I try to handle disappointments more quickly than I used to – I wish someone had told me early on that there would be so many in this life but that was not one of the courses we took at seminary. If I move toward disillussionment, I try not to stay there long and run back to the bottom line faith that I have in God. Just because He does not run life the way I thought he should have, does not give me the right to hold on to my stuff. I must let go and keep running the race, even if I do slow down a bit in these times of disappointment.
Joyjourney, I hadn’t really thought about that order of things–disillusionment following disappointment. But I think you might be right that in facing a disappointment head-on, there is often a stripping of some illusion that we have had.
And I bet you could suggest some other really practical, relevant and helpful seminary courses in addition to “The Prevalence of Disappointment”…
Thanks alot for giving me this opportunity to share this nice dialogue with serious issues. the word disillusionment i understand it by the original word, illusion, if you have been at a desert and have seen the horison as water, with disilliosionment your reception would be disappointed.
once you discovered it is just nothing, i agree its anice feeling although its not real. so disilliosionment is some feeling relates to our judgement affected by many inner factors, our mood, physical health, etc,