A topic of growing interest in computational neuroscience is the discovery of fundamental principles underlying global dynamics and the self-organization of the brain. In particular, the notion that the brain operates near criticality has gained considerable support, and recent work has shown that the dynamics of different brain states may be modeled by pairwise maximum entropy Ising models at...
The main aim of this article is to shed light on the intricate relationship between Buddhism and science by focusing on what is becoming an increasingly popular area of contact between the two domains, namely the study of consciousness in the field of cognitive (neuro)science. First, three fundamental ways of approaching the relationship between Buddhism and science are outlined: (a) rejection...
The clinical presentation of obsessive-compulsive patients is characterized by unwanted, intrusive, nonsensical, self-related, and recurrent ideas, thoughts, images, or impulses associated with active compulsive compensations. Under the operational diagnostic criteria adopted by the biological- and cognitive-oriented neopositivist medical paradigm, it is known as "obsessive-compulsive...
A poetic look at delusional disorders. Drawing on Castoriadis' considerations of the radical imaginary, we can show that contemporary objectivist nosography is not sufficient to grasp the full complexity of this disorder. Two of Baudelaire's poems, L'Albatros and Elevation, seem to illustrate what poetry can say about human imaginary productions.
This contribution takes a phenomenological approach to explore the sensuous flow and perceived experiences in practicing movement skills, using the practice of yoga as a case study. The article focuses on the role of perception and the anonymous aspect of the body's responses in practicing skills and capabilities to move, with yoga as an example. The author uses a phenomenological framework,...
Certain schools of phenomenological psychiatry conceive of schizophrenia as a pathology of common-sense. Ethnomethodological enquiry, with its roots in Schutzian social phenomenology, takes as its domain, topic, and substance of study the ongoing achievement of a common-sense world between social members. Yet, dialogue between psychiatry and ethnomethodological approaches is thin. In this...
There is growing interest in tailoring psychological interventions for distressing voices and a need for reliable tools to assess phenomenological features which might influence treatment response. This study examines the reliability and internal consistency of the Voice Characterisation Checklist (VoCC), a novel 10-item tool which assesses degree of voice characterisation, identified as...
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex condition marked by heterogeneity. People with BPD have a profusion of symptoms spread across various levels of lived experience, such as identity, affectivity, and interpersonal relationships. Researchers and clinicians have often resorted to the structuring concept of Self to organize the fragmentation of their experience at the identity...
The article traces the hypotheses of the contemporary French psychiatrist Henri Grivois, concerning what he calls nascent psychosis. In a perspective close to descriptive phenomenology, Grivois tries to identify the alteration of subjective experience specific to the first moments of a psychosis. He thus describes the experiences of concernment and centrality as consisting in a disruption of...
Human consciousness is characterized by constant transitions in time. On the other hand, what is consciously experienced always possesses the temporal feature of "now." In consciousness, "now" constantly holds different contents, yet it remains "now" no matter how far it goes. This duality is thematized in Husserlian phenomenology as "the standing-streaming now." Although this phrase appears...