TikTok users are only just understanding a psychological phenomenon we all experience called the Call of the Void, or L’appel du Vide if you enjoy some French.
Mental health and the innermost workings of the brain have received a massive amount of research and attention over the last few years, offering new information like dark personality traits linked to gaslighting tactics. That being said, there is still a lot we don’t know about our brains.
What is the Call of the Void?
Social media users were recently turned on to the psychological phenomenon after Felicia (@feleciaforthewin) stumbled across the French term on Wikipedia.
“There is this phrase in French called L’appel du Vide, which, when you translate it, means Call of the Void,” she said. “It’s a psychological phenomenon that happens whenever we feel randomly called to ourselves into the void. The craziest thing about the call of the void is that we’ve apparently evolved to have this feeling.”
The feeling usually occurs during potentially fatal moments, like when we think about jumping from a tall height or consider swerving onto the other side of traffic. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re having a mental health crisis, your brain is simply keeping you in check.
Essentially, when we are in potentially dangerous stations without the appropriate levels of fear, our brains trigger a vision of the worst possible scenario. This snaps us back to reality.
Though most people have experience with the feeling, a lot were shocked to learn that its a real thing, as one person penned: “Literally every time a subway train is pulling into the station.”
“Well, my brain is broken because I do this just walking into the grocery store or going to a party. I’m meant to stay home and be an indoor cat,” another person said.
It’s more common than you’d think
Several studies on the Call of the Void suggest that practically half of the human race experiences the phenomenon at some point in their lives.
While studies have shown that people are more likely to experience suicidal ideation when they have felt the call of the void, researchers don’t believe there is a direct connection between the two topics.
“It seems to be something known to many people regardless of suicidality and anxiety,” researcher Tobias Teismann said following the conclusion of his 2020 study. “As such, it is normal, and not a sign of psychopathology.”
