The lancet. Psychiatry
March 1, 2026
Jasper Feyaerts, Pavan S Brar, Louis Sass et al.
1 citation
In the past three decades, psychiatric research has increasingly focused on the early subthreshold stages of psychosis, with the aim of improving the early identification and treatment of individuals at increased risk of psychotic disorder. Yet, despite considerable research effort, current early psychosis research faces several limitations. In this Personal View, we consider how integrating...
Psychopathology
August 18, 2025
Evan J. Kyzar, George H Denfield, Jasper Feyaerts et al.
1 citation
Dynamical systems theory (DST) has recently gained traction as a framework to describe and predict the progression of psychopathology. However, a number of challenges to the application of DST to psychopathology have arisen, including the heterogeneity of symptom measures and the lack of theoretical underpinnings to describe the temporal unfolding of psychiatric illnesses. In this article, we...
Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
August 1, 2025
Vera A Barata, Suzie Lavoie, Łukasz Gawęda et al.
3 citations
IntroductionWe previously proposed a neurophenomenological model of schizophrenia, linking basic self-disturbance with neural deficits of source monitoring and aberrant salience. Baseline comparisons in ultra-high risk (UHR) and first-episode psychosis (FEP) samples indicated a relationship between basic self-disturbance and source monitoring deficits, but not aberrant salience. The current...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
2025
Aleksandra Jeličić, Maja Drobnič Radobuljac, Louis Sass et al.
1 citation
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) overlap in behavioral signs, particularly in social functioning; consequently, SSD patients are frequently misdiagnosed with ASD and vice versa. The neurodevelopmental and spectrum nature of both disorders, including milder variants, further complicates differential diagnosis, which calls for a better differentiation by...
January 18, 2024
Jasper Feyaerts, Barnaby Nelson, Louis Sass
1 citation
preprint
Understanding alterations of selfhood (termed self-disorders or self-disturbances) that are considered typical of the schizophrenia-spectrum is a central focus of phenomenological research. The currently most influential way of phenomenologically conceiving self-disorders in schizophrenia is as disorders of the so-called most basic or ‘minimal self’. In this paper, we first highlight some...
Frontiers in Psychology
August 25, 2023
Elizabeth Pienkos, Jérôme Englebert, Jasper Feyaerts et al.
11 citations
SCOPUS: ed.j
Early Intervention in Psychiatry
July 2, 2023
Marija Krcmar, Cassandra Wannan, Suzie Lavoie et al.
6 citations
AIM: Basic self disturbance is a putative core vulnerability marker of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The primary aims of the Self, Neuroscience and Psychosis (SNAP) study are to: (1) empirically test a previously described neurophenomenological self-disturbance model of psychosis by examining the relationship between specific clinical, neurocognitive, and neurophysiological variables in UHR...
Conscious Cogn
November 1, 2019
Barnaby Nelson, Suzie Lavoie, Łukasz Gawęda et al.
99 citations
BackgroundThe integration of various domains or levels of analysis (clinical, neurobiological, genetic, etc.) has been a challenge in schizophrenia research. A promising approach is to use the core phenomenological features of the disorder as an organising principle for other levels of analysis. Minimal self-disturbance (fragility in implicit first-person perspective, presence and agency) is...
Schizophrenia Research
September 1, 2019
Luís Madeira, Elizabeth Pienkos, Teresa Filipe et al.
18 citations
A disturbance of "minimal self," - of the immediate sense of mine-ness inherent in experience-is hypothesized to be the core disturbance in schizophrenia. Research with the Examination of Anomalous Self Experience (EASE) has demonstrated the selective aggregation of anomalous self-experiences in the schizophrenia spectrum. Conceptual research suggests that anomalous world experiences, including...
Psychopathology
2017
Luís Madeira, Sergio Carmenates, Cristina Costa et al.
31 citations
Anomalous self-experiences (ASEs), presumably involving alterations in "core" or "minimal self," have been studied as manifest in schizophrenia and its spectrum, in contrast with mood disorder and personality disorder samples. This is the first study to examine ASEs in panic disorder (PD), beginning the exploration of these disturbances of subjectivity in anxiety disorders. We aimed to clarify...
Schizophrenia Research
December 1, 2015
Louis Sass, Juan P Borda
44 citations
Schizophrenia is a diverse and varying syndrome that defies most attempts at classification and pathogenetic explanation. This is the second of two articles offering a comprehensive model meant to integrate an understanding of schizophrenia-related forms of subjectivity, especially anomalous core-self experience (disturbed ipseity), with neurocognitive and neurodevelopmental findings....
World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)
June 1, 2015
Louis Sass, Greg Byrom
94 citations
There is considerable overlap between phenomenological and neurocognitive perspectives on delusions. In this paper, we first review major phenomenological accounts of delusions, beginning with Jaspers' ideas regarding incomprehensibility, delusional mood, and disturbed "cogito" (basic, minimal, or core self-experience) in what he termed "delusion proper" in schizophrenia. Then we discuss later...
Schizophrenia Research
2014
Louis Sass
216 citations
This paper offers an overview and clarification of the ipseity-disturbance or self-disorder hypothesis regarding schizophrenia, with focus on some recent and recommended research and theoretical refinements. There is need to expand research and theorizing in several directions-in order to: 1, specify more precisely what is truly distinctive in the schizophrenia spectrum, 2, explore internal...
Consciousness and Cognition
September 1, 2013
Louis Sass, Elizabeth Pienkos, Barnaby Nelson
42 citations
This paper offers a comparative investigation of anomalous self-experiences common in schizophrenia (defined in Examination of Anomalous Self Experiences (EASE) instrument) and those of normal individuals in an intensely introspective orientation (early 20th-century "introspectionist" psychology). The latter represent a relatively pure manifestation of certain forms of exaggerated...
Consciousness and Cognition
June 1, 2013
Louis Sass, Elizabeth Pienkos, Barnaby Nelson et al.
144 citations
Various forms of anomalous self-experience can be seen as central to schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. We examined similarities and differences between anomalous self-experiences common in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, as listed in the EASE (Examination of Anomalous Self Experiences), and those described in published accounts of severe depersonalization. Our aims were to...
Psychopathology
2009
Barnaby Nelson, Louis A Sass, Borut Škodlar
The early intervention movement for treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders has extended to include pharmacological and psychological treatment of putatively prodromal (or 'ultra-high risk') patients. The psychotherapy that has been trialed to date is cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT), due to its apparent success with patients with established psychotic disorder and its current...
Psychopathology
2008
Barnaby Nelson, Louis Sass
24 citations
While considerable research attention has been devoted to the causal relationship between substance use and psychosis, the phenomenology of the association between the two has largely been ignored. This is a significant shortcoming, because it blinds researchers to the possibility that there may be elements of the subjective experience of substance use and psychosis that contribute to their...