Experiential Anomalies and Self-Centrality in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Background: Contemporary psychopathological research has shown that some qualitative anomalies of the first-person experiential givenness qualify the subjective experience of schizophrenia. Such essential clinical features of schizophrenia have recently been condensed into 7 phenomenologically coherent clusters derived from the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms (BSABS). The experimental intent of this study was to test whether subapophanic self-centrality (i.e. a protopathic nondelusional form of intersubjective spatial disattunement) empowers the discriminant capacity of such a set of subjective experiential disturbances among different diagnostic groups. Method: Three comparably sized samples of outpatients with schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive or mood disorders were examined with the BSABS. Logistic regression analysis was performed with diagnosis as the outcome variable. Results: Elevated scores in self-perceived cognitive disorders and abnormal self-centrality were associated with DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia. Self-centrality increased the discriminant capacity of the 7 designed a priori dimensions. Conclusions: These findings confirm the previously reported aggregation of some subtle qualitative alterations of subjective experience in schizophrenia, and suggest that a careful consideration of autocentric disturbances of intersubjectivity might enrich current heuristics on schizophrenic experiential vulnerability.

Mirroring the Self: Testing Neurophysiological Correlates of Disturbed Self-Experience in Schizophrenia Spectrum

“…In order to explore possible relations between electrophysiological evidence and phenomenological experiences thought to constitute a distinctive phenotype of schizophrenia psychopathology, EASE-analog subscales were constructed from the available BSABS data. BSABS items were indeed grouped into seven rational scales [2,47] representing essential dimensions of the SzSp experiential pathology: Diminished Affectivity, Disturbed Contact, Perplexity, Cognitive Disorder, Self-Disorder, Cenesthesias and Perceptual Disorder. To ensure good internal consistency, each scale was subjected to an item analysis, intended to maximize α coefficient [48].…”

Cenesthopathy and Subjective Cognitive Complaints: An Exploratory Study in Schizophrenia

“…This fact could probably be explained by the considered period of time for assessment, the whole duration of illness in our study, according to the general instructions of the BSABS [5], and the present time in the second case [36]: in fact, total scores decreased to 2.8 (SD, 3.2) after 2 weeks of follow-up. Similarly, lower scores in cenesthetic basic symptoms were obtained in a group of 35 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (48.6% women, mean age, 35.2 years, mean duration of illness, 9.1 years) when a 2-week time frame was applied (mean score, 0.89; SD, 0.96) [37]. Interestingly, the cenesthetic basic symptoms found in at least 30% of patients are quite similar in both studies: D.1, unusual bodily sensations of numbness or stiffness; D.1.1, somatopsychic sensations of motor weakness (sensations of "paralysis"); D.8, sensations of abnormal heaviness, lightness or emptiness, of falling, sinking, levitation, or elevation [36].…”

Delusions of Technical Alien Control: A Phenomenological Description of Three Cases

“…They also experienced particular psychopathological phenomena such as loss of ego boundaries [16,20] , I-split, self-centrality [21,22] , paradoxes of delusions [23,24] , subjectification of perception [25] , reification of psyche [26] , morbid objectification [27][28][29][30] and spatialization of mental experience [31] .…”

“…Thus, he may experience a solipsistic grandiosity and feel the very centre of the universe, but also that he is in the focus of an anonymous attention. This corresponds to the psychopathological phenomenon of self-centrality, referring to a self-referential attitude in which the experiential field is overwhelmed by centripetal directions of influence and intentionality [21,22] . When aligning himself with the internet via his computer, the patient felt to be the centre of an anonymous, ubiquitous attention which he then personalized by figures he thought he had interacted with personally.…”

“…The cultural themes of the 21st century shape not only the content but also the form of psychotic selfexperience. Contemporary technologies and their nearly unlimited functions help the patients to express or explain their anomalous self-experiences, such as loss of ego boundaries [16,20] , I-split, self-centrality [21,22] , subjectification of perception [25] , reification of psyche [26] , morbid objectification [27][28][29][30] and spatialization of mental experience [31] . Therefore, we can say that schizophrenic delusions of technical alien control are of a distinct and novel kind and not only new versions of older delusions of influence.…”