Existential Orientation: On the Phenomenology of Values, Attitudes, and Worldviews in Schizophrenia (Ancillary Article to EAWE Domain 6)

Abstract

Since the appearance of schizophrenia as a distinct diagnosis, various researchers and clinicians, particularly those in the phenomenological and existential tradition, have noted the unique contribution of attitudinal and characterological factors to the illness. There has been a notable lack of attention paid to these features in most recent research on the disorder; still, understanding the values, attitudes, and worldviews - what might be termed the “existential orientation” - of persons with schizophrenia may be essential for comprehending the illness and developing effective approaches to treatment. Domain 6, Existential orientation, of the Examination of Anomalous World Experience (EAWE) includes descriptions related to unusual worldviews and values that may be especially common in schizophrenia. The current paper provides a summary of classic and contemporary phenomenological literature on values and existential orientation in schizophrenia, with the goal of providing a context for and further explanation of the items in EAWE Domain 6. These characterizations generally suggest that persons with schizophrenia may more likely value being faithful to idiosyncratic, often eccentric ways of thinking and acting, questioning or rejecting conventions and common sense, refusing or avoiding relationships and intimacy with others, and living according to intellectual and idealistic rules (in contrast to a more immediate or spontaneous approach to life). Possible factors contributing to the development of these values are also discussed.

Other Persons: On the Phenomenology of Interpersonal Experience in Schizophrenia (Ancillary Article to EAWE Domain 3)

“…The failure to consider the value system of persons who suffer from schizophrenia [35] can contribute to the tendency to dismiss their behavior merely as inappropriate, and their experiences and beliefs simply as pathological, and this may have a stigmatizing effect. Values and existential concerns among persons with schizophrenia are investigated by EAWE Domain 6 and addressed more fully in a subsequent ancillary article to the EAWE [36]. …”

Other Worlds: Introduction to the Special Issue on the <b><i>EAWE: Examination of Anomalous World Experience</i></b>

“…The second part of this issue consists of six “ancillary” articles that provide the clinical/theoretical background to the EAWE domains. Two of these concern the two aspects of “spatiotemporality” [3,4] (which Gurwitsch [5], a phenomenologist, has termed “the most general underlying relevancy principle” of “reality, i.e., of the perceptual world of everyday experience”), while other ancillary articles concern the domains of “Other persons” [6], “Language” [7], “Atmosphere” [8], and “Existential orientation” [9], each of which has a fundamental importance of its own.…”