Rebuilding reality: A phenomenology of aspects of chronic schizophrenia

Authors: Schwartz, Michael¹; Wiggins, Osborne²; Naudin, Jean³; Spitzer, Manfred⁴

Source: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Volume 4, Number 1, January 2005 , pp. 91-115(25)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

Schizophrenia, like other pathological conditions of mental life, has not been systematically included in the general study of consciousness. By focusing on aspects of chronic schizophrenia, we attempt to remedy this omission. Basic components of Husserl’s phenomenology (intentionality, synthesis, constitution, epoche, and unbuilding) are explicated and then employed in an account of chronic schizophrenia. In schizophrenic experience, basic constituents of reality are lost and the subject must try to explicitly re-constitute them. “Automatic mental life” is weakened such that much of the world that is normally taken-for-granted cannot continue to be so. The subject must actively re-lay the ontological foundations of reality.

Keywords: automatic mental life; dopamine; Husserl; schizoprenia; unbuilding

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11097-005-4738-y

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, Email: mas1@concentric.net 2: Department of Philosophy, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA, Email: opwigg01@gwise.louisville.edu 3: Department of Psychiatry, University of Marseilles, Marseilles, France, Email: artsnaud@aix.pacwan.net 4: Department of Psychiatry, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany, Email: Manfred.Spitzer@medizin.uni-ulm.de

Publication date: 2005-01-01