Giving thickness to the minimal self
Coenesthetic depth and the materiality of consciousness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21751230 |
|---|---|
| Authors | István Fazakas (0000-0002-2619-3790, Université Libre de Bruxelles, corresponding author), Mathilde Bois (Concordia University), Tudi Gozé (0000-0002-3958-896X, University of Wuppertal) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 409-429 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1568-7759 • E-ISSN: 1572-8676 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11097-023-09951-w |
| OpenAlex | W4389473756 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 32 |
Contemporary phenomenological psychopathology has raised questions concerning selfhood and its possible alterations in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Although the notion of the self is central to several accounts of anomalies, it remains a question how exactly the radically minimal experiential features of selfhood can be altered. Indeed, the risk is to reduce the notion of selfhood so drastically, that it can no longer account for alterations of experience. Here we propose to give thickness to the minimal self. To do this we first discuss Sartre’s phenomenological definition of coenesthesia as the translucent matter of consciousness articulating it with the notion of existential feelings. We then draw on the historical research on coenesthesia to dig deeper in this translucent materiality identified as the element of the body. We show that selfhood, even in its most minimal level, must be conceived of with a specific elemental thickness, corresponding to a phenomenological materiality of embodiment. We argue that a phenomenological reading of coenesthesia as the bodily element of ipseity can shed a new light on the anomalies of self-experience
Aesthetics · Consciousness · Epistemology · Existentialism · Experiential learning · Feeling · Psychoanalysis · Self · Transcendental number · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Neurology and Historical Studies · Philosophy · Psychology
Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Science
Critique of Pure Reason
Feelings of Being
Ease
The Psychosis High-Risk State
Schizophrenia, Consciousness, and the Self
The interoceptive underpinnings of the feeling of being alive. Damasio’s insights at work
Mysticism and schizophrenia
Anomalous self-experience in depersonalization and schizophrenia
Self-consciousness, self-agency, and schizophrenia
Beyond Consciousness of External Reality
Thought insertion and disturbed for-me-ness (minimal selfhood) in schizophrenia
The “minimal self” in psychopathology
Disembodied Spirits and Deanimated Bodies
Recovering a sense of self in schizophrenia
Les avatars du «sentiment de l'existence», de Locke à Rousseau
| Citations per year | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |