# Psychology: the "flat affect"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 24, 2019, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318 "2019-01-24T07:20:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2019, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318/1 "2019-01-24T07:20:16Z")
I am depressed.
But I am also curious.
My depression at its worst feels as if I have no emotion; my “sadness” is not sad, it is absence of emotion. I can feign “happiness” for a while, but it seems forced, and a bit like a circus coming to a small boring town, then leaving, the small boring town is still small and boring.
The “flat affect” doesn’t describe this absence of emotion, or the feeling that all emotion is “above” the zero baseline of “no emotion”; it describes the inability to express that emotion.
I can easily express happiness, sadness, anger, joy etc, but it all seems a little fake (objectively… and yes, I realise that self analysis is exceptionally subjective)
Anyway. The question is, is there a scientific term for the absence of substantive emotion? (Hopefully not "psychopath! ")
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2019, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318/2 "2019-01-24T07:55:11Z")
‘anhedonia’. Also known as apathy, “feeling numb”, or “absence of feeling”. The flat affect is the noticeable effect, so that’s what gets described: “anhedonia” is just a word used in some of the literature and to answer questions like yours…
But also good for self description, when engaged in the circular rumination that sometimes goes with depression.
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### Author:  [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2019, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318/3 "2019-01-24T07:56:09Z")
It called “disassociation” and includes emotional detachment.
> [@](#):
>
> Emotional detachment is experienced differently by different people: You may feel a lingering sense of boredom and emptiness; you may feel that you are not able to show or feel any emotions, to respond to events with joy or sadness as others would, or to connect with others in a deep and meaningful way. You may feel that you are holding back, watching life goes by without being ‘in it’. Although the pains of life seemed to have been dampened, you also do not feel the full extent of positive emotions such as love, joy, and connections.
There is a concept of a “window of tolerance” where your emotions are within the ability to regulate. Getting too far out of one side results in anxiety attacks and other symptoms. Getting too far out in the other direction is disassociation.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2019, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318/4 "2019-01-24T08:06:21Z")
Depersonalization? Maybe.
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### Author:  [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318/5 "2019-01-24T15:19:22Z")
It reminds me of[this hyperbole and a half](http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-part-two.html) post.
You are not the only one.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychology-the-flat-affect/828318/6 "2019-01-24T17:26:41Z")
Anhedonia.