The Book of Human Emotions: From Ambiguphobia to Umpty - 154 Words from Around the World for How We Feel - Tiffany Watt Smith 2016

Ilinx

There’s a peculiar exhilaration in the idea of picking up a pile of loose papers, opening the window and flinging them all out. Or intentionally smashing a delicate china cup. Or in standing on a kitchen chair and tipping out a bag of marbles so that they crash, bounce and roll across the floor. According to the twentieth-century French sociologist Roger Caillois, the “strange excitement” of wanton destruction was one way of experiencing the feeling he named ilinx (from the Greek word for whirlpool). He defined ilinx as a “voluptuous panic,” a sensation of spinning, falling and losing control—the sort of feeling that riding a roller coaster might produce. Callois traced ilinx back to the practices of ancient mystics who by whirling and dancing hoped to induce rapturous trance states and glimpse alternative realities (see: ECSTASY). Today, even succumbing to the urge to create a minor chaos by kicking over the office recycling bin should give you a mild hit.

See also: DÉPAYSEMENT.