Defamiliarization — Defamiliarization originally names a literary and artistic technique that presents familiar things in unfamiliar ways, prompting people to notice what habit has obscured. Applied to scam victims, it offers a descriptive analogy for the changed perception that follows discovery: familiar messages, photographs, routines, and memories acquire meanings the survivor did not previously recognize. This application describes a way of understanding the experience rather than an established clinical condition. Defamiliarization of the scam experience occurs when the survivor revisits something once understood as ordinary affection and recognizes its role in manipulation. A reassuring message reveals pressure, an apparent emergency reveals a demand for money, or a romantic photograph reveals the use of a stolen identity. The material remains the same, but knowledge of the deception changes how the survivor interprets it, making the previously familiar relationship appear profoundly different. Defamiliarization also offers a useful lens for examining assumptions about trust, intimacy, and credibility. The survivor begins noticing how familiar signals, such as affectionate language or apparent shared interests, acquired authority without independent verification. Its constructive meaning lies in seeing those signals more clearly while distinguishing the criminal’s use of them from their legitimate place in honest relationships, so that greater awareness supports informed judgment rather than universal suspicion.

Added October 5, 2026