Subjective Experience Of Self Research Articles

Mindfulness Affects the Boundaries of Bodily Self-Representation: The Effect of Focused-Attention Meditation in Fading the Boundary of Peripersonal Space.

Peripersonal space (PPS) is a dynamic multisensory representation of the space around the body, influenced by internal and external sensory information. The malleability of PPS boundaries, as evidenced by their expansion after tool use or modulation through social interactions, positions PPS as a crucial element in understanding the subjective experiences of self and otherness. Building on the existing literature highlighting both the cognitive and bodily effects of mindfulness meditation, this study proposes a novel approach by employing focused-attention meditation (FAM) and a multisensory audio-tactile task to assess PPS in both the extension and sharpness of its boundaries. The research hypothesis posits that FAM, which emphasizes heightened attention to bodily sensations and interoception, may reduce the extension of PPS and make its boundaries less sharp. We enrolled 26 non-meditators who underwent a repeated measure design in which they completed the PPS task before and after a 15-min FAM induction. We found a significant reduction in the sharpness of PPS boundaries but no significant reduction in PPS extension. These results provide novel insights into the immediate effects of FAM on PPS, potentially shedding light on the modulation of self-other representations in both cognitive and bodily domains. Indeed, our findings could have implications for understanding the intricate relationship between mindfulness practices and the subjective experience of self within spatial contexts.

Staging Depth: Eugene O’Neill and the Politics of Psychological Discourse

Staging Depth: Eugene O’Neill and the Politics of Psychological Discourse

Discontinuity in the Subjective Experience of Self Among People with Mild-To-Moderate Dementia Is Associated with Poorer Psychological Health: Findings from the IDEAL Cohort.

Background:The onset and progression of dementia can result in changes in the subjective experience of self, impacting on psychological health.Objective:We aimed to explore the extent to which people with mild-to-moderate dementia experience discontinuity in the subjective experience of self, and the factors associated with this experience for people with dementia and their family caregivers.Methods:We used data from the baseline assessment of the IDEAL cohort. Discontinuity in the subjective experience of self was assessed by asking participants about their agreement with the statement ‘I feel I am the same person that I have always been’. Participants were divided into those who did and did not experience discontinuity, and the two groups were compared in terms of demographic and disease-related characteristics, psychological well-being, measures of ‘living well’, and caregiver stress.Results:Responses to the continuity question were available for 1,465 participants with dementia, of whom 312 (21%) reported experiencing discontinuity. The discontinuity group experienced significantly poorer psychological well-being and had significantly lower scores on measures of ‘living well’. There was no clear association with demographic or disease-related characteristics, but some indication of increased caregiver stress.Conclusion:A significant proportion of people with mild-to-moderate dementia describe experiencing discontinuity in the subjective sense of self, and this is associated with poorer psychological health and reduced ability to ‘live well’ with the condition. Sensitively asking individuals with dementia about the subjective experience of self may offer a simple means of identifying individuals who are at increased risk of poor well-being.

Recovering from Severe Mental Illness: Mutual Influences of Self Illness

A growing body of literature on the subjective experiences of people with severe mental illness (SMI) reveals the importance of the experience of self. The current study explored how the course of SMI is related to individuals' subjective experience of self. Bimonthly, comprehensive, semi-structured interviews with 43 people who had been discharged from psychiatric hospitalization were conducted over a 1-year period. Qualitative analysis of the data revealed mutual influences between the experience of self and illness over time. Conceptual and clinical implications of the relation between self and illness are discussed.

Neuropsychological functioning as a moderator of the relationship between psychosocial functioning and the subjective experience of self and life in schizophrenia.

Psychosocial interventions and models of quality of life in schizophrenia are based on the notion that increases in psychosocial functioning will be related to improvements in subjective experience outcomes such as self-esteem and satisfaction with life. However, studies have repeatedly failed to demonstrate a direct relationship between psychosocial functioning and subjective experience in schizophrenia. This study of 40 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia examined whether neurocognitive measures of executive functioning moderated the relationship between psychosocial functioning and subjective experience. Subjective experience was represented by measures of satisfaction with life and self-esteem. The Global Assessment Scale measured psychosocial functioning, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test measured executive functioning. Multiple regression and correlation analyses indicated that executive functioning was a strong moderator. Specifically, individuals with schizophrenia with impaired executive functioning displayed a positive and statistically significant association between psychosocial functioning and both measures of subjective experience (r = 0.55 and 0.61). However, among schizophrenia patients with intact executive performance, psychosocial functioning was negatively associated with self-esteem and satisfaction with life (r = -0.24 and -0.46). And the findings were internally replicated using two other neuropsychological measures relevant to executive functioning. These findings indicate that executive functioning plays a major role in moderating the relationship between subjective experience and psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia. Implications for biosocial models, psychosocial interventions, and models of quality of life in schizophrenia are discussed.

The end of the beginning: A brief history of the psychoanalysis of adult ageing

This article reviews the contribution of psychoanalysis to an increased understanding of adult ageing, with a particular interest in the experience of later life. 'Classical' Freudian perceptions of the value of work with older analysands are critically re-evaluated and the contribution of influential analysts such as King examined. It is suggested that a continuing tendency to reduce adult experience to the formative influence of childhood has worked against an understanding of an authentic subjectivity for mature adulthood. However, the insight that the adult psyche works on a number of timescales and age-structured identifications, has the potential to both broaden understanding of intergenerational relationships and unpeel the subjective experience of self from attributions based on chronological age. A more flexible model of mature psychology that emerges would have implications for practical and theoretical psychoanalysis. The insights of a psychodynamic approach would at the same time positively influence the wider study of social gerontology.

The Sense of Self and Identity among Adolescents and Adults

This investigation pursued the study of the subjective experience of identity that was initiated in 1991 byBlasiandMilton. The conceptual categories thatwere usedto explore differences in the experience of identity correspond tofour identity modes thatpreviously had been derivedfrom a secondary analysis of the Loevinger ego development categories. This study focused on two modes, Identity Observed and Management of Identity, and was guided by two main hypotheses: (a) patterns of subjects' responses should closely correspond to the identity modes; and (b) the main characteristics of these modes, as represented by five self scales as well as the overall response patterns, should differentiate a group of middle adolescents from a group of adults. Data were derived from extensive interviews on themes related to the subjective experience of self and identity with 15 high school seniors and 15 adults, all women. The hypotheses were confirmed.

Should We Be Stern With Daniel Stern? A Personal Appraisal of Daniel Stern's Book The Interpersonal World of the Infant'

SUMMARY Daniel Stern's book The Interpersonal World of the Infant is reviewed with some detail paid to his notion of the sequential unfolding of the subjective experience of self during infancy. He denotes this sequence as the Senses of the Self and they include the Sense of an Emergent Self (birth-2 months of age); Sense of Core Self (2–6 months); Sense of Subjective Self (7–15 months); Sense of a Verbal Self (15 months on). A critical evaluation of Stem's conclusions is offered - several issues which the author feels are valuable contributions to our growing understanding of infancy, and several which illuminate, in the author's opinion, the unavoidable element in research that the researcher is influenced by his own “basic truths”, in this instance the legacy of the American ego-psychologic tradition.