Schizophrenic consciousness, spiritual experience, and the borders between things, images and words.
Transcultural Psychiatry December 1, 2005 DOI: 10.1177/1363461505058919 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Humans Consciousness Imagination Spirituality Schizophrenia Schizophrenic psychology Judaism Vocabulary |
| Key points | Argues that schizophrenic consciousness involves a solidification of imaginary space in which images become 'physical' and the separation between things, images, and words erodes. Contends that spiritual and philosophical traditions illuminate this experience and that the commonsensical separatedness of things, images, and words is historically and culturally determined. |
Abstract
A prototypical feature of schizophrenic consciousness is that it undergoes a solidification of the imaginary space in which mental events take place. The bipartition between images and 'real' things is jeopardized and imagination is transformed into 'physical' forms. Parallel to this solidification of imaginary space in schizophrenic consciousness, more generally the rigid tripartite separation of things, images and words upon which the spatial order of consciousness is founded starts to erode. I explore different spiritual and philosophical traditions which shed light on and make more understandable the schizophrenic consciousness that call into question this separatedness. I argue that these traditions indicate that our current commonsensical approach to the separatedness between things, images and words is historically and culturally determined.