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Schizophrenia and the experience of intersubjectivity as threat

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Abstract

Many with schizophrenia find social interactions a profound and terrifying threat to their sense of self. To better understand this we draw upon dialogical models of the self that suggest that those with schizophrenia have difficulty sustaining dialogues among diverse aspects of self. Because interpersonal exchanges solicit and evoke movement among diverse aspects of self, many with schizophrenia may consequently find those exchanges overwhelming, resulting in despair, the sensation of fusion with another, and/or self-dissolution. In short, compromised dialogical capacities may be a contributing factor to social dysfunction in schizophrenia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Roudebush VA Medical Center and the Psychiatry Department, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis

    Paul Henry Lysaker

  2. Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, Indianapolis

    Jason K. Johannesen

  3. Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon, Eugene

    John Timothy Lysaker

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  1. Paul Henry Lysaker
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  2. Jason K. Johannesen
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  3. John Timothy Lysaker
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Correspondence to Paul Henry Lysaker.

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Lysaker, P.H., Johannesen, J.K. & Lysaker, J.T. Schizophrenia and the experience of intersubjectivity as threat. Phenom Cogn Sci 4, 335–352 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-005-4067-1

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