Other Persons: On the Phenomenology of Interpersonal Experience in Schizophrenia (Ancillary Article to EAWE Domain 3)

In this paper, we discuss the philosophical and psychopathological background of Domain 3, Other persons, of the Examination of Anomalous World Experiences (EAWE). The EAWE interview aims to describe the manifold phenomena of the schizophrenic lifeworld in all of their concrete and distinctive features, thus complementing a more abstract, symptom-focused approach. Domain 3, Other persons, focuses specifically on subjectively experienced interpersonal disturbances that may be especially common in schizophrenia. The aim of this domain, as with the rest of the EAWE, is to provide clinicians and researchers with a systematic orientation toward, or knowledge of, patients' experiences, so that the experiential universe of schizophrenia can be clarified in terms of the particular feel, meaning, and value it has for the patient. To help provide a context for EAWE Domain 3, Other persons, we propose a definition of "intersubjectivity" (IS) and "dissociality." The former is the ability to understand other persons, that is, the basis of our capacity to experience people and social situations as meaningful. IS relies both on perceptive- intuitive as well as cognitive-computational resources. Dissociality addresses the core psychopathological nucleus characterizing the quality of abnormal IS in persons with schizophrenia and covers several dimensions, including disturbances of both perceptive-intuitive and cognitive-computational capacities. The most typical perceptive-intuitive abnormality is hypoattunement, that is, the lack of interpersonal resonance and difficulties in grasping or immediately understanding others' mental states. The most characteristic cognitive-computational anomaly is social hyperreflexivity, especially an algorithmic conception of sociality (an observational/ethological attitude aimed to develop an explicit, often rule-based personal method for participating in social transactions). Other anomalous interpersonal experiences, such as emotional and behavioral responses to others, are also discussed in relation to this core of dissociality.