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Social sciences
- Psychoanalysis
- Psychopathology
- Philosophical psychology
- Psychological assessment
Delusions in schizophrenia are commonly approached as empirical false beliefs about everyday reality. Phenomenological accounts, by contrast, have suggested that delusions are more adequately understood as pertaining to a different kind of reality-experience. To date, however, the specific nature of delusional reality-experience has not been subject to systematic empirical study. It is also unclear how this alteration of reality-experience should be characterized, which dimensions of experiential life are involved and whether delusional reality may differ from standard reality in various ways. Furthermore, little is known about how delusional patients value and relate to these experiential alterations. This research project aims to investigate the nature of delusional reality-experience, and its subjective apprehension, in individuals with lived experience of delusions and a schizophrenia-spectrum diagnosis.