Each person invests many of the objects in his life with his or her own unconscious meaning, each person subsequently voyages through an environment that constantly evokes the self's psychic history. Taking Freud's model of dreamwork as a model for all unconscious thinking, Christopher Bollas argues that we dreamwork ourselves into becoming who we are, and illustrates how the analyst and the patient use such unconscious processes to develop new psychic structures that the patient can use to alter his or her self experience. Building on this foundation, he goes on to describe some very special forms of self experience, including the tragic madness of women cutting themselves, the experience of a cruising homosexual in bars and bathes and the demented ferocity of the facist state of mind. An original interpreter of classical theory and clinical issues, in Being a Character Christopher Bollas takes the reader into the very texture of the psychoanalytic process.

The aim of this volume is to discuss recent research into self-experience and its disorders, and to contribute to a better integration of the different empirical and conceptual perspectives. Among the topics discussed are questions like 'What is a self?, ' 'What is the relation between the self-givenness of consciousness and the givenness of the conscious self?', 'How should we understand the self-disorders encountered in schizophrenia?' and 'What general insights into the nature of the self can pathological phenomena provide us with?' Most of the contributions are characterized by a distinct phenomenological approach.The chapters by Butterworth, Strawson, Zahavi, and Marbach are general in nature and address different psychological and philosophical aspects of what it means to be a self. Next Eilan, Parnas, and Sass turn to schizophrenia and ask both how we should approach and understand this disorder, and, more specifically, what we can learn about the nature of selfhood and existence from psychopathology. The chapters by Blakemore and Gallagher present a defense and a criticism of the so-called model of self-monitoring, respectively. The final three chapters by Cutting, Stanghellini, Schwartz and Wiggins represent anthropologically oriented attempts to situate pathologies of self-experience.(Series B)

Recent debates on phenomenal consciousness have shown renewed interest for the idea that experience generally includes an experience of the self--a self-experience--whatever else it may present the self with. When a subject has an ordinary experience (as of a bouncing red ball, for example), the thought goes, she is not just phenomenally aware of the world as being presented in a certain way (a bouncy, reddish, roundish way in this case); she is also phenomenally aware of the fact that it is presented to her. This supposed phenomenal dimension has been variously called mineness, for-me-ness, pre-reflective self-awareness and subjective character, among others. This view, associated with historical figures such as William James, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre, is attracting a new surge of attention at the crossroads of phenomenology, analytic philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of cognitive science, but also intense controversy. This book explores some of the questions running through the ongoing debate on the putative subjective dimension of experience: Does it exist?, the existence question; What is it?, the essence question; What is it for?, the function question; and What else does it explain?, the explanation question. The volume also surveys various domains of human experience, both normal and pathological, where a 'sense of self' might be at play, including agency, bodily awareness, introspection, memory, emotions, and values, and offers insights into the possible relations between the notions of subjective awareness involved. The first part of the book is devoted to more sceptical or deflationary views about self-experience, and the second, to more robust ones.

Explores the journey beyond union, beyond self and God, into the silent and still regions of the Unknown.

Møller sheds light on the inner aspects of psychosis and psychosis risk, and its core experiential phenomena as a method of understanding the individual early psychosis development. The book details how such experiences might take shape in the human mind and how a better understanding achieved through detailed clinical conversations can lead to earlier detection and improved interventions. Møller also outlines the subjectivity model (also called Ipseity Disturbance Model) and presents a broad review of different treatment approaches and settings, in which work with disturbed self-experience could be integrated, including psychotherapy, in-patient milieu therapy, supportive treatments, psychoeducational family work, local networking, and medication. Psychosis Risk and Experience of the Self will prove essential for experienced and specialised clinicians as well as the more generally interested reader.

This work, "The Way of Seasons: A Journey of Self Experience," is a self-healing system inspired by Reiki but adapted for independent personal growth. It emphasizes the body's natural healing abilities and focuses on balancing energy flow through the body's meridians. Key Features: Self-paced and accessible: No master-student relationship is required, making it accessible to anyone seeking self-improvement. Emphasis on personal exploration: Encourages introspection, observation, and honesty with oneself to facilitate change. Holistic approach: Integrates elements like aromatherapy, meditation, affirmations, and conscious breathing to enhance the experience. Seasonal attunement and cleansing: Aligns with the natural cycles of the year, promoting deeper connection and balance. Mind-body-spirit connection: Addresses the interconnectedness of physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Overall, this system provides a framework for individuals to: Cultivate openness of mind and willingness to change. Create an ideal environment conducive to healing. Prepare their body for optimal energy flow. Enhance their practice through music, meditation, and affirmations. Connect with the seasons and their corresponding energies. Engage in cleansing practices to release blockages and promote harmony. Important Note: This system is intended for self-exploration and personal growth, not as a substitute for professional medical advice.

Installation art has modified our relationship to art for over fifty years by soliciting the whole body, demonstrating its sensitivity to space, surroundings, and the living beings with which it is constantly interacting. This book analyses this modification of perception through phenomenological approaches convoking Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, as well as Levinas, Depraz, and the neuroscientist Varela. This theoretical framework is implicit in the various case studies which revisit works that have become classic or emblematic by Carl Andre, Bruce Nauman, Dan Graham; inaugural experiments that remain available only through photographic and written archives by Jean-Michel Sanejouand, Philippe Parreno, as well as the influence of the mode in the realm of music. The book also examines the transference of this Western form to Asia, revealing how it resonates with ancient Asian representations and practices—often associated with the spiritual. The distinct chapters underpin the role of space as a metaframe, the common ground of the various installations. While the nature and agency of space varies—from social, historical space, leisurely or political space, inner psychological space, to shared empty space—these installations reveal the chiasm between the individual body and the outside space. The chapters bear testimony of the process in which the physical journey of the spectator’s body within a material—at times invisible—space and its structural components takes place in time, as a succession of micro-experiences. ‘Installation art as experience of self, in space and time’ adds to the existing literature of art history a level of theoretical, experiential and transcultural analysis that will make this inquiry relevant to both university students and independent researchers in the academic fields of philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, art theory and history, religious and Asian studies.

A classic and perennially relevant book, written by one of the world's foremost authorities in the field, The Unfolding Self Varieties of Transformative Experience Back to Titles The Unfolding Self examines in detail the transformations which an individual undergoes in the process of their expansion of consciousness. Referencing ancient and modern cultures from around the world, Dr. Metzner accomplishes what only a great teacher can do; conveying subtle concepts and fascinating breadth through an engrossing tapestry of myth, allegory, cross-references and historical context. Drawing upon 50 years as a pioneer in the study of consciousness, beginning with his triune collaborations with Dr.'s Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert at Harvard University in the early 1960's, Dr. Metzner brings unique experience and sagacity to this most important of inquiries. Now required reading in a number of progressive psychology courses, The Unfolding Self promises to provide its reader with valuable tools to become "wise, impartial judges" in their process of transformation into a more integrated and fulfilled person.

The papers in this volume were delivered at the first international colloquium by the Jacob Taubes Minerva Center for Religious Anthropology at Bar Ilan University, held in February 1995. Concepts of Self, Soul and Body are so close to the physiological layers of life that we may imagine them to be biological as well; but in fact, they are social constructs, and a source of fundamental metaphors for the classification of experience. They thus help organize the world, at the same time as they express basic human identity. They vary from culture to culture and can productively be compared and contrasted from one setting to another. We intend these papers to be a test case of the benefit to be gained from attention to Religious Anthropology.

Matthew H. Bowker offers a novel analysis of "experience": the vast and influential concept that has shaped Western social theory and political practice for the past half-millennium. While it is difficult to find a branch of modern thought, science, industry, or art that has not relied in some way on the notion of "experience" in defining its assumptions or aims, no study has yet applied a politically-conscious and psychologically-sensitive critique to the construct of experience. Doing so reveals that most of the qualities that have been attributed to experience over the centuries — particularly its unthinkability, its correspondence with suffering, and its occlusion of the self — are part of unlikely fantasies or ideologies. By analyzing a series of related cases, including the experiential education movement, the ascendency of trauma theory, the philosophy of the social contract, and the psychological study of social isolation, the book builds a convincing case that ideologies of experience are invoked not to keep us close to lived realities and ‘things-in-themselves,’ but, rather, to distort and destroy true knowledge of ourselves and others. In spite of enduring admiration for those who may be called champions of experience, such as Michel de Montaigne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others treated throughout the work, the ideologies of experience ultimately discourage individuals and groups from creating, resisting, and changing our experience, urging us instead to embrace trauma, failure, deprivation, and self-abandonment.