What does it mean to lose touch with your own feelings, even while functioning well in everyday life?

In this episode of Psychoanalysis & You, Dr. Gail Saltz speaks with psychoanalyst Dr. Gila Ashtor about what she calls “feeling disorders”—experiences like gaslighting, empty consent, and toxic relationships that reflect a deeper difficulty in accessing and trusting one’s own emotional life.

Ashtor explains how many patients today appear high-functioning yet feel disconnected, uncertain, or on “autopilot,” and how this can fall outside traditional diagnostic categories. The discussion explores how modern culture, social media, and therapy trends may reinforce emotional disconnection, and why psychoanalysis aims instead to restore curiosity, emotional range, and a stronger sense of internal experience.

The episode also examines gaslighting and “empty consent,” and how subtle relational dynamics can lead people to override their own perceptions without recognizing it at the time.

Overall, the conversation focuses on how psychoanalytic work helps people reconnect with their feelings and build a more vivid, internally grounded sense of self.