What does a mentally ill person experience when they cannot distinguish between their conscious thoughts and their delusions?
A new book, "When Self-Consciousness Breaks: Alien Voices and Inserted Thoughts," by UAB philosophers George Graham, Ph.D., and G. Lynn Stephens, Ph.D., examines that question.
The schizophrenic loses the sense of being the agent who thinks or carries out a thought, and therefore can't tell the difference between their own thoughts and the "voices" in their head.
"The book is not a recipe for therapy," says Graham, "but it identifies where one might focus therapeutic treatment. The treatment might involve heightening a person's sense of their own agency and their power to control their thoughts."
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