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Multiple Realities and Hybrid Objects: A Creative Approach of Schizophrenic Delusion.

Michel Cermolacce, Katherine Despax, Raphaëlle Richieri, Jean Naudin

Frontiers in Psychology February 13, 2018 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00107 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Topics Philosophy of mind
Keywords Schizophrenia Delusions Perspectivism Double book-keeping
Key points Argues that delusion is not a false belief about a single external reality but one of several realities, each with its own logic and style, in line with the Multiple Reality Theory. Two clinical cases illustrate that everyday reality and the reality of delusion can be articulated through compossibility (Double Book-Keeping) or flexibility, and that 'Hybrid Objects' may function as shifters between realities, offering psychotherapeutic possibilities.

Abstract

Delusion is usually considered in DSM 5 as a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality, but the issue of delusion raises crucial concerns, especially that of a possible (or absent) continuity between delusional and normal experiences, and the understanding of delusional experience. In the present study, we first aim to consider delusion from a perspectivist angle, according to the Multiple Reality Theory (MRT). In this model inherited from Alfred Schütz and recently addressed by Gallagher, we are not confronting one reality only, but several (such as the reality of everyday life, of imaginary life, of work, of delusion, etc.). In other terms, the MRT states that our own experience is not drawing its meaning from one reality identified as the outer reality but rather from a multiplicity of realities, each with their own logic and style. Two clinical cases illustrate how the Multiple Realities Theory (MRT) may help address the reality of delusion. Everyday reality and the reality of delusion may be articulated under a few conditions, such as compossibility [i.e., Double Book-Keeping (DBK), in Bleulerian terms] or flexibility. There are indeed possible bridges between them. Possible links with neuroscience or psychoanalysis are evoked. As the subject is confronting different realities, so do the objects among and toward which a subject is evolving. We call such objects Hybrid Objects (HO) due to their multiple belonging. They can operate as shifters, i.e., as some functional operators letting one switch from one reality to another. In the final section, we will emphasize how delusion flexibility, as a dynamic interaction between Multiple Realities, may offer psychotherapeutic possibilities within some reality shared with others, entailing relocation of the present subjects in regained access to some flexibility via Multiple Realities and perspectivism.

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