The concept of the schizophrenic lifeworld revisited.
Marco Kramer, Paraskevi Mavrogiorgou, Georg Juckel
Frontiers in Psychiatry September 26, 2025 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1625364 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Schizophrenia Lifeworld Husserl Phenomenological psychopathology Blankenburg |
| Key points | Argues that schizophrenic lifeworlds are best understood pluralistically, on a spectrum between isolation and participation and between radically anomalous experience and shared lifeworlds, rather than through a single interpretation. Proposes that therapy should build bridges of shared self-evidence, attentive presence, and supportive milieus while respecting the protective and emancipatory functions of private worlds. |
Abstract
Disturbances regarding the lifeworlds of patients with mental disorders are recurrently mentioned in psychiatric literature, but the concept often remains poorly defined and unclear. The present article takes the lifeworld in schizophrenia as an example to elucidate this concept. First, the concept "lifeworld" is traced back to its philosophical roots. The classical phenomenology particularly of Edmund Husserl is revisited to establish its general meaning. Secondly, synthesizing classical and current phenomenological-psychopathological literature with empirical findings, we explore different interpretations regarding schizophrenia and their relation to existing theories: (1) a general loss of lifeworld through diminished natural self-evidence, (2) the constitution of an idiosyncratic private world (Eigenwelt), (3) the perception of a strange and alien world (Fremdwelt), and (4) schizophrenia as part of our shared intersubjective lifeworld, albeit with a particular vulnerability to social passivity and exclusion. We argue for a pluralistic understanding that situates schizophrenic lifeworlds on a spectrum between isolation and participation, between radically anomalous experiences and shared lifeworlds. Therapeutically, the analysis highlights the importance of establishing bridges of shared self-evidence, attentive presence, and supportive milieus, while acknowledging the protective and emancipatory functions of private worlds. More broadly, acknowledging schizophrenic lifeworlds as embedded in, yet challenging, our shared world opens new directions for research and calls for a more inclusive psychiatry.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 9
- Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 2003
- Thought insertion and disturbed for-me-ness (minimal selfhood) in schizophrenia. Consciousness and Cognition September 1, 2019
- Double bookkeeping in schizophrenia spectrum disorder: an empirical-phenomenological study. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience September 1, 2024
- Selfhood and alterity: schizophrenic experience between Blankenburg and Tatossian Frontiers in Psychology July 7, 2023
- Paving the way for systemic phenomenological psychiatry - the forgotten heritage of Wolfgang Blankenburg. Frontiers in Psychiatry 2022
and 4 more in the library