Disorders of Schizophrenic Embodiment: A Phenomenological Investigation

Abstract

The bodily manifestations of schizophrenia are not commonly in the forefront of scientific research. An investigation of the disorders of schizophrenic embodiment is nevertheless instructive not only for psychotherapeutic advances in the treatment of the schizophrenic condition, but because it offers unusual access to the pre-reflective experience of the body, a topic of great significance in contemporary phenomenology. This dissertation proposes a methodological framework for the systematic analysis of the various disorders of embodiment in schizophrenia, such as the schizophrenic modality of bodily self-alienation, the distortions of the body image experienced by schizophrenics, the processes that drive the conceptualization of the body as a material entity, and the disorders of pre-reflective selfhood to which these phenomena testify. This investigation is presented alongside an ethical inquiry interrogating the nature and the scope of ethical obligations owed to schizophrenic individuals in view of this novel understanding of the subjective experiences of schizophrenia.