Etymology

[andrewducker]

Is there a word for the feeling that everything will always be exactly how it is in the present, even though that present situation has only lasted 3 days?

Comments

[chillies.livejournal.com]

Depending on how good the situation is, it could be optimism.

[andrewducker]

Unfortunately, it's just as often pessimism.

I've seen it a lot, people assuming that a very temporary set of circumstances will define the future forever more. Everything from the DotCom boom (redefining economics!) to people just out of relationships (Nobody will ever love me again).

It seems to be a big part of human psychology, which is why it surprised me when I realised there was no word for it.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

You can choose -- do you want the Nobel Prize for Literature, for defining the term, or the Nobel Prize for Medicine, for identifying the behaviour?

[andrewducker]

Sadly, I suspect neither pays enough for me to retire on :->

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

Or hell. ;)

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Having flu :(

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

Provincialism? A bit of a stretch, but it can include "everything everywhere will be just like here and now".

[cx650.livejournal.com]

Not so much a single word, but a phrase.

Same sh!t, different day!

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

There is, but I can't remember it. ISTR it being a variant of the name of the psychologist that first described it (not Maslow, but a contemporary).

[chuma.livejournal.com]

Rut, as in being in one.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

If it's a negative feeling, then 'hopelessness' might be it. It's also possible there's a clinical term, as the sense of 'nothing will ever change' is commonly part of clinical depression.

[andrewducker]

Not just a negative feeling though. See my comment to Chillies above.

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

Childhood?

[andrewducker]

Best answer yet :->

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

limbo, possibly?