Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What Can Schizophrenia Teach Us About Emotions?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Schizophrenia and Common Sense

Part of the book series: Studies in Brain and Mind ((SIBM,volume 12))

  • 644 Accesses

Abstract

The chapter argues that the contradiction of emotional experiences identified in schizophrenic patients is a part of everyone’s emotional life. Building on Ratcliffe’s idea of thinking of schizophrenia in relational terms and taking up the claim that the minimal self reflects a fundamental orientation to the world and the social world, the chapter looks into schizophrenic emotional life as a way to offer insights about emotions. The visibility of contradiction seen in schizophrenia patients brings to the surface some aspects of the complexity of emotional life, and reveals some of the processing of emotional experiences. Consequently, taking the contradiction of emotional experience in schizophrenia as familiar instead of strange, shows that emotional life entails experiences in which we can find inconsistencies between first order emotions, moods and the emotional episode, as well as experiences of conflict between first order emotions and meta-emotions. The chapter concludes by indicating that accepting the similarity of processing of layers of emotions and the recognition that the outcomes are different raises further issues for research questions to better understand schizophrenia.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Borges, M. (2004). What can Kant teach us about emotions? The Journal of Philosophy, 101(3), 140–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutting, J. (1985). The psychology of schizophrenia. Edinburgh, Scotland: Churchill Livingstone.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Sousa, R. (2014). Emotion. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/emotion/. Accessed 1 Sept 2016.

  • Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), The later works, 1925–1953 (Vol. 10). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988–1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dingle, G., Williams, E., Jetten, J., & Welsh, J. (2017). Choir singing and creative writing enhance emotion regulation in adults with chronic mental health conditions. British Journal of Clinical Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12149

  • Droit-Volet, S., & Gil, S. (2009). The time-emotion paradox. Philosophical Transactions Royal Society Biological Sciences, 364, 1943–1953.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, R. H., Clark, S. C., Amador, X. F., & Gorman, J. M. (1996). Does affective blunting in schizophrenia reflect affective deficit or neuromotor dysfunction? Schizophrenia Research, 20, 301–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ey, H. (1955). Description clinique de la forme typique. In Etudes cliniques et psychopathologiques (pp. 165–232). Paris: Schizophrenie Synthelabo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, S. (2000). Philosophical conceptions of the self: Implications for cognitive science. Trends in Cognitive Science, 4(1), 14–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, S. (2005). How the body shapes the mind. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, S. (2012). Multiple aspects in the sense of agency. New Ideas in Psychology, 30(1), 15–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, S., & Trigg, D. (2016). Agency and anxiety: Delusions of control and loss of control in schizophrenia and agoraphobia. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, 459. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerrans, P. (2015). Passivity experience in schizophrenia. In R. J. Gennaro (Ed.), Disturbed consciousness: New essays on psychopathology and theories of consciousness (pp. 325–346). Cambridge, MA: MIT.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herberner, Rosen, Khine, & Sweeney. (2007). Failure of positive but not negative emotional valence to enhance memory in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 43–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, S. A. (2015). Metaemotional intentionality. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1111/papq.12093

  • Irarrázaval, L. (2015). The lived body in schizophrenia: transition from basic self-disorders to full-blown psychosis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 6(9), 1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jäger, C., & Bänninger-Huber, E. (2015). Looking into meta-emotions. Synthese, 192(3), 787–811.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jäger, C., & Bartsch, A. (2006). Meta-emotions. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 73, 179–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, T., & Bodtker, A. (2001). In theory mediating with heart in mind: Addressing emotion in mediation practice. Negotiating Journal, 3, 217–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H., & Sadock, B. (1998). Synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences, clinical psychiatry. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kring, A. M. (1999). Emotion in schizophrenia: Old mystery, new understanding. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 160–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kring, A. M., & Caponigro, J.-M. (2010). Emotion in schizophrenia: Where feeling meets thinking. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(4), 255–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendonça, D. (2012). The pattern of emotion – following a Deweyan suggestion. Journal of Transactions of Charles Peirce Society, 48(2), 209–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendonça, D. (2013). Emotions about emotions. Emotion Review, 5(4), 390–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitmansgruber, H., Beck, T. N., Höfer, S., & Schüßler, G. (2009). When you don’t like what you feel: Experiential avoidance, mindfulness, and metaemotion in emotion regulation. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 448–453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moscarelli, M. (2009). Passive and active schizophrenia: Toward a new descriptive micropsychopathology. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 35(6), 1183–1196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norman, E., & Furnes, B. (2014). The concept of ‘Metaemotion’: What is there to learn from research on metacognition? Emotion Review. Published online October 13, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073914552913

  • Pugmire, D. (2005). Sound sentiments. integrity in the emotions. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ratcliffe, M. (2017). Selfhood, schizophrenia, and the interpersonal regulation of experience. In C. Durt, T. Fuchs, & C. Tewes (Eds.), Embodiment, enaction, and culture: Investigating the constitution of the shared world. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Assessed from Academia.edu November 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Read, J., Agar, K., Argyle, N., & Aderhold, V. (2003). Sexual and physical abuse during childhood and adulthood as predictors of hallucinations, delusions and thought disorder. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 76(1), 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sass, L. (2004). Affectivity in schizophrenia: A phenomenological perspective. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, 127–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sass, L. (2007). Contradictions of emotion in schizophrenia. Cognition and Emotion, 21(2), 351–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sass, L. A. (2014). Self-disturbance and schizophrenia: Structure, specificity, pathogenesis (Current issues, new directions). Schizophrenia Research, 152(1), 5–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sass, L., & Borda, J.-P. (2015a). Phenomenology and neurobiology of self disorder in schizophrenia: Primary factors. Schizophrenia Research, 169(1–3), 464–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sass, L., & Borda, J.-P. (2015b). Phenomenology and neurobiology of self disorder in schizophrenia: Secondary factors. Schizophrenia Research, 169(1–3), 474–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slater, E., & Roth, M. (1969). Mayer-Gross, Slater, and Roth: Clinical psychiatry. London: Ballière, Tindall, & Cassell.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research work is supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/102507/2014) and within the research project (PTDC/MHC-FIL/0521/2014), with the institutional backup of Instituto de Filosofia da Nova (IFILNOVA), Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, within the activities of the Lisbon Mind and Reasoning Group. Huge thanks to Luke Hartauer for kindly proofreading the chapter. Thank you to Inês Hipólito, Jorge Gonçalves, Klaus Gerner and Rob Clowes for their time, questions and discussion in the various presentations of earlier versions of the chapter. And a deep thanks to Phillip Gerrans and Inês Hipólito for critical review with suggestions for improving the chapter, and to the anonymous reviewers for insightful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, UNL, Instituto de Filosofia da Nova (IFLNOVA), Lisbon, Portugal

    Dina Mendonça

Authors
  1. Dina Mendonça
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Inês Hipólito

  2. Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas IFILNOVA, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Jorge Gonçalves

  3. Romão de Sousa Foundation, University of Évora, Estremoz, Portugal

    João G. Pereira

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mendonça, D. (2018). What Can Schizophrenia Teach Us About Emotions?. In: Hipólito, I., Gonçalves, J., Pereira, J. (eds) Schizophrenia and Common Sense. Studies in Brain and Mind, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73993-9_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation