While literature indicates that culture modulates phenomenological characteristics of hallucinations in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, little is known about the extent culture modulates these characteristics in nonclinical samples. We compared lifetime prevalence, age of onset, and phenomenology of hallucinations as assessed with the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences between samples of...
Micro-phenomenology is a method that generates rich and reliable reports of singular experiences in their pre-reflective dimension. Usually it is employed using a second-person interviewer. In this study we attempted to train naïve subjects in using self-inquiry version of the method. 13 subjects met twice over the course of one week, investigating their experiences of headaches, looking...
Psychedelics are undergoing a major resurgence of scientific and clinical interest. While multiple theories and frameworks have been proposed, there is yet no universal agreement on the mechanisms underlying the complex effects of psychedelics on subjective experience and brain dynamics, nor their therapeutic benefits. Despite being prominent in psychedelic phenomenology and distinct from those...
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...