When Self–Consciousness Breaks – Alien Voices and Inserted Thoughts - Softcover

Stephens, G Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262692848 ISBN 13: 9780262692847

Publisher: MIT Press, 2003

Synopsis

In this book, G. Lynn Stephens and George Graham examine verbal hallucinations and thought insertion as examples of what they call "alienated self-consciousness." In such cases, a subject is directly or introspectively aware of an episode in her mental life but experiences it as alien, as somehow attributable to another person. Stephens and Graham explore two sorts of questions about verbal hallucinations and thought insertion. The first is their phenomenology-what the experience is like for the subject. The second concerns the implications of alien episodes for our general understanding of self-consciousness. Psychopathologists look at alien episodes for what they reveal about the underlying pathology of mental illness. As philosophers, the authors ask what they reveal about the underlying psychological structure and processes of human self-consciousness. The authors suggest that alien episodes are caused by a disturbed sense of agency, a condition in which the subject no longer has the sense of being the agent who thinks or carries out the thought. Distinguishing the sense of subjectivity from that of agency, they make the case that the sense of agency is a key element in self-consciousness.

About this title

Review

--Stephen E. Braude, University of Maryland at Baltimore County

" An admirable contribution... one that demonstrates the ways in which philosophy can inform the interdisciplinary study of consciousness." -- S. Krippner, Choice

" This book is philosophically subtle and thorough, empirically sophisticated, and sensitive to the complex phenomenology of both normal and abnormal experience." --Stephen E. Braude, University of Maryland at Baltimore County

& quot; An admirable contribution... one that demonstrates the ways in which philosophy can inform the interdisciplinary study of consciousness.& quot; -- S. Krippner, Choice

& quot; This book is philosophically subtle and thorough, empirically sophisticated, and sensitive to the complex phenomenology of both normal and abnormal experience.& quot; --Stephen E. Braude, University of Maryland at Baltimore County

"An admirable contribution... one that demonstrates the ways in which philosophy can inform the interdisciplinary study of consciousness."-- S. Krippner, "Choice"

"This book is philosophically subtle and thorough, empirically sophisticated, and sensitive to the complex phenomenology of both normal and abnormal experience."--Stephen E. Braude, University of Maryland at Baltimore County

"An admirable contribution...one that demonstrates the ways in which philosophy can inform the interdisciplinary study of consciousness." S. Krippner Choice

"An admirable contribution... one that demonstrates the ways in which philosophy can inform the interdisciplinary study of consciousness." S. Krippner Choice

About the Author

G. Lynn Stephens is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. George Graham is a Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0262692848
• ISBN 13: 9780262692847
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212