continuation of this post
*grabs my soap box and scrambles up onto it again*
and what if the stimulus is less important than the response??
for example. what if someone loses a sentimental item– something that would usually be associated with the desolation (grief, loss, destruction of something important to someone)– but instead of this person reacting with grief, their emotional response is instead a violent epiphany of the finitude of everything, or existential dread at the understanding that a day will come, in the distant future, where every part of the world that’s familiar to them will disappear.
it wouldn’t matter that the initial stimulus is associated to the desolation– it wouldn’t even matter if the sentimental item was destroyed in a fire; the desolation’s motif. their response falls under the jurisdiction of the end or the extinction.
and this can work with any stimulus and any response.
a person who looks at a burnt photograph and, instead of mourning the lost memories, is disgusted by the ashes.
a person who is buried alive. but instead of feeling trapped, they’re more scared of what sort of animals might also be lurking beneath the earth.
a person who’s hiding a dark secret, but instead of worrying about the social consequences, is more afraid that someone might respond violently if they were to find out.