Trapped in a Mirror Maze

A Phenomenological Analysis of Hallucinations Among Persons with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Using interviews with patients staying at the Soteria Unit of the Center for Psychiatry (zfp) Reichenau, the article provides a phenomenological analysis of hallucinations. The interviews indicate that hallucinations are experienced quite differently than actual perceptions. Their modalities of experience are mostly fluctuating and highly ambiguous. Often, they are not visible or audible at all, but manifest in the mere bodily feeling of something or someone’s presence. According to Merleau-Ponty, every hallucination is therefore a "hallucination of the body." Drawing on Thomas Fuchs’ analysis of schizophrenia, the paper shows that in hallucinations the body responds to alienated states of intentional consciousness that are no longer assigned to one's own mental life.