Ipseity and Embodiment within the Lived Experience of Schizophrenia
Bryan Rojas-huerta, José Carlos Medina-rodríguez, Lisa Sheccid Dávila-orozco, Xavier Abraham Rodriguez-bello, Natalie Hiddekel Torres-meza
Theoría Revista del Colegio de Filosofía May 26, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.22201/ffyl.29544270e.2025.49.2238 via OpenAlex
Summary
Schizophrenia involves a disruption in the structure that makes experience possible, not just disordered thought or emotion. This paper argues that self-disorders are central to the schizophrenia spectrum, affecting agency, embodiment, temporality, and intersubjectivity before psychosis emerges. Integrating phenomenology, clinical psychiatry, and cognitive science, it describes a structural collapse in the embodied and temporal organization of the self. The Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE) is discussed as a tool for mapping these disturbances. The paper proposes shifting focus from descriptive categories to the structural conditions of personal experience, supporting early interventions to preserve selfhood.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Schizophrenia involves a structural collapse in the embodied and temporal organization of the self, with self-disorders being central to the schizophrenia spectrum. |
Abstract
Schizophrenia cannot be confined to disordered thought, emotion, or perception—it involves a disruption in the structure that makes experience possible. This paper addresses schizophrenia as a disturbance of ipseity, the minimal, pre-reflective, embodied, and affective dimension of selfhood that grounds subjectivity in the world. Drawing upon phenomenology, clinical psychiatry, and philosophy of science, it argues that self-disorders (SDs) are not peripheral phenomena but structural dimensions of the schizophrenia spectrum. Through theoretical synthesis and phenomenological analysis of clinical data, the paper describes how disruptions in agency, embodiment, temporality, and intersubjectivity precede and organize the emergence of psychotic phenomena. It also integrates findings from neuroscience and enactive cognitive science, clarifying that schizophrenia involves a structural collapse in the embodied and temporal organization of the self. The Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE) is discussed as a clinical instrument that operationalizes this process by mapping pre-reflective disturbances of selfhood and their transformation into reflective distortions of consciousness. Ultimately, the paper proposes a philosophical reconceptualization of schizophrenia’s ontological status, shifting the focus from descriptive taxonomies to the structural conditions that sustain personal experience. This reorientation has diagnostic and therapeutic implications by supporting early interventions aimed at preserving the continuity of selfhood before psychosis becomes explicit.