Ernst Jünger (1895-1998) was a German writer and decorated First World War veteran. His writings provide essential testimony about industrial warfare’s derealization effect. He described feeling alienated from his own body during artillery bombardment, experiencing “total transparency” where he felt simultaneously watched and detached.
Jünger’s phenomenological descriptions reveal how technological violence exceeds human perceptual capacities, creating altered consciousness states fundamental to modern warfare.
Related: derealization, war-and-cinema, Paul-Virilio