Soggetto incarnato e dys-apparenza patologica. Fenomenologia e psicopatologia del corpo vissuto

Abstract

The article discusses the phenomenological concept of the bodily-self, understood as ecological spatiality, and illustrates how this interpretation can facilitate comprehension of disorders arising within the psychopathological context. The experience of the bodily-self is articulated in the minimal form of selfhood, in the experience of the other and in the experience of the surrounding-world. In order to participate in intersubjective space, the necessary condition is the disappearance of the Leib: the transparency and anonymity of the lived body enables the existence of the other. This standpoint is of particular interest when considering the role of the Leib in psychopathological experience, especially in cases where the body’s structural disappearance shifts to a pathological dys-appearance. In such cases, this loss manifests itself in corporeality, depersonalisation, and embodiment conflict. A comprehensive grasp of these experiences is not only pertinent to the psychopathological domain, but also facilitates the description of experiential levels that would otherwise be inaccessible to analysis.