This article by Clara S. Humpston has been published in the journal Philosophical Psychology. The abstract says:
“I reflect on what may be termed ‘omnipotent passivity and omniscient oblivion’ which are some of the key paradoxes within schizophrenia. I discuss various aspects of insight and self-awareness as components of clinical recovery and argue that the minds affected by schizophrenia can in fact be very insightful, albeit a different kind of insight entirely. I argue that the nature of schizophrenia means that one’s experience of the illness may be conceptualized as a nonevent or non-experience due to the detachment from subjectivity and replacement/withdrawal of will. I draw parallels between the (again, paradoxical) experience of such nonevents with psychological annihilation and physical death, as well as with some intensely reflexive states of mind in philosophical pursuits. I also put forward an argument for the importance of investigating the kinds of nothingness, solitude and nihilism intrinsic to schizophrenia and how these might be studied or perhaps even understood from the angle of paradoxicality, which I consider to be the core psychopathology of schizophrenia and which may aid differential diagnosis with higher specificity. Lastly, I urge clinicians and researchers to redirect their passion away from “solving” the puzzle of schizophrenia and toward realizing the humanity in their patients.”
You can read the article from here.
