Abnormal experiences (disturbances) of the self in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: the qualitative aspect

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, psychopathology has shown a growing interest in the study of the self and its alterations from a phenomenological perspective, and a number of studies have appeared on the anomalous experience in schizophrenia. Publications on these topics are scarce in Spanish-language psychiatry. For this reason, this article presents a narrative review, first, of the concept of the basic or minimal self and, second, of the qualitative aspects of alterations in the basic self in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and the prodrome of schizophrenia. The basic or minimal self has a similar structure in all human beings. It corresponds to an implicit sense of self-presence previous to any reflection or elaborate cognitive process, to being immersed in the world from a first-person perspective, to the point of reference and belonging of all mental phenomena. It is pre-reflective, non-verbal, and immediately present in each and every experience. Anomalous self-experiences, or self-disturbances, are considered core phenotypic features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. They are experiences in which the first-person perspective or one's status as the subject of experience or action is somehow distorted.