A case study of primary process language and body boundary imagery in discourses of religious-mystical and psychotic experiences
Laura A. Cariola
2012
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Case report |
|---|---|
| Population | Two historical autobiographical/mystical texts: Saint Teresa of Avila's "The Way of Perfection" (1567) and Daniel Paul Schreber's "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" (1903) |
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key findings | The mystical and psychotic texts differed in the frequency of primordial thought language and penetration imagery. Positive associations were found between primordial thought language and penetration imagery, and between barrier and penetration imagery, in both texts; the psychotic text yielded only the barrier–penetration association. |
Abstract
Religious-mystical and psychotic altered states of consciousness (ASC) are assumed to share common phenomenological and psychobiological features, including regressive cognition and changes in body boundary awareness. This study aimed to assess the frequency and strength of associations between primordial thought language and body boundary imagery in the discourses of mystical and psychotic-mystical ASC. The mystical discourse examined here is Saint Teresa of Avila’s (1567) mystical writing "The Way of Perfection”, and the psychotic discourse is Daniel Paul Schreber’s (1903) autobiographical writing “Memoirs of My Nervous Illness”. The mystical text differs from the psychotic text in the frequency of primordial thought language and penetration imagery. Positive associations were also found between primordial thought language and penetration imagery, and barrier and penetration imagery, whereas the psychotic text yielded a positive association between barrier and penetration imagery only.