Perception and experience of the self in autoscopic phenomena and self -portraiture

Abstract

Autoscopic phenomena are reduplicative experiences during which the subject has the impression of seeing a double in extracorporeal space either from an embodied or disembodied visuo-spatial perspective. Autoscopic phenomena include out-of-body experience (OBE), autoscopic hallucination (AH) and heautoscopy (HAS). In an out-of-body experience, subjects feel that their self, or centre of awareness, is located outside the physical body and somewhat elevated. It is from this elevated extracorporeal location that subjects experience seeing their body and the world. An autoscopic hallucination is defined as the experience of seeing a double of oneself in extracorporeal space without leaving one's body (no disembodiment). As compared to out-of-body experiences, individuals with autoscopic hallucination experience seeing the world from their habitual visuo-spatial perspective and experience their self, or centre of awareness, inside their physical body. During heautoscopy subjects also have the experience of seeing a double in extracorporeal space (as in autoscopic hallucination). However, it is difficult for the subject to decide whether he is disembodied or not and whether the self is localised within the physical body or in the double. The present review highlights recent findings concerning phenomenological and neuro-cognitive characteristics of autoscopic phenomena of neurological origin.These findings are compared with the pictorial phenomenology of self-portraits, which may also be described as reduplicative phenomenona because self-portraits contain the painter twice: as the painting painter and the painted painter (double). The comparative analysis between the three forms of autoscopic phenomena and self-portraits revealed several phenomenological similarities suggesting that some of the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of autoscopic phenomena might also be employed by artists of self-portraits as well as beholders of such works of art. Based on this analysis a division of the genre of self-portraiture in three major types of self-portraits is proposed that reflects the characteristics of out-of-body experience (OBE self-portraits), autoscopic hallucination (AH self-portraits) and heautoscopy (HAS self-portraits). It is argued that autoscopic phenomena, which have fascinated mankind from time immemorial, might add to our understanding of the central processes that mediate self-perception and self-experience in cognitive neuroscience as well as art history.