‘Sheer Space’, ‘Elvenspace’, the Ghost Choir of Time and ‘Thymic Space’: A Trilogue to Understand Space ‘Oddities in Schizophrenia’
摘要
This chapter makes the case for a different approach to the current methods in psychopathology of measuring symptoms and generalising it to a large population of patients. The aim is not to review the literature on schizophrenia concerning space. Rather, we have been interested in the singular element, in the individual grasped in its ecceity. ´Ecceity—a neologism deriving from the Latin ‘haecce’, which means ‘this’, ‘these’—indicates the individuality of an object or a phenomenon, or its this-ness. This chapter looks at the perception of space and its existential meanings in the lifeworlds of three people: Lorenzo Gilardi, Helene Cæcilie Mørck and Giovanni Stanghellini. The first two have lived experience with schizophrenia, while the latter is an expert by profession. However, we do not refer to this in the traditional academic sense. Instead, this chapter stands as testimony to individual experiences and the possibility of dialogue between ‘experts by experience’ and ‘experts by profession’ in which the voice of each does not drown out the voice of the others but rather helps to make it clearer and more audible. This chapter’s aim can be taken as an exercise in dialogue—as opposed to a monologue of a ‘normal’ conscience on a ‘sick’ conscience—and as an exercise of mutual understanding—as opposed to a process aimed at ‘diagnosing’ a mental illness.