Giving thickness to the minimal self: coenesthetic depth and the materiality of consciousness
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences April 1, 2026 István Fazakas, Mathilde Bois, Tudi Gozé 7 citations
Selfhood, even at its most basic level, has a bodily thickness that can be altered in schizophrenia. Drawing on Sartre's concept of coenesthesia—the translucent material of consciousness—and historical research, the authors argue that the minimal self is not a bare point but an embodied, elemental feeling. This phenomenological materiality, or bodily element of ipseity, helps explain anomalies of self-experience in schizophrenia spectrum disorders without reducing selfhood so drastically that it cannot account for experiential changes.