The Embodied Self

Dimensions, Coherence and Disorders

Progress of scientific research into the foundations of human self-experience is fascinating, but it also poses serious questions:

• Is the self more than an illusion created by the brain?
• What role does the body play for self-experience and intersubjectivity?
• What can pathologies of the self tell us about the constitution of normal self-awareness?
• What consequences does this have for our concepts and therapy of psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders?
• How may the results of neurobiological, psychological, philosophical and clinical research on the self and its disorders be related to each other?

These and other key questions are dealt with in this volume which offers cutting-edge research in an expanding interdisciplinary area. It is based on the joint European project DISCOS ("Disorders and Coherence of the Embodied Self") which unites philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists and psychiatrists who are among the leading researchers in their respective field.