The Shape Of Reality: Cognitive Languages and the Phenomenology of Psychosis
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) July 3, 2026 Amalie Stepperud-Antonsen
Psychosis may leave a person's core cognitive architecture intact while altering how they attribute reality to their experiences. Drawing on predictive processing, dreaming, and the Cognitive Languages framework, this hypothesis argues that the subjective experience of psychosis reflects the brain's existing representational systems rather than an entirely new way of thinking. The paper offers several testable predictions meant to guide future empirical research in computational psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, and mechanism-based mental health treatment.