THE SENSED PRESENCE AS RIGHT HEMISPHERIC INTRUSIONS INTO THE LEFT HEMISPHERIC AWARENESS OF SELF - AN ILLUSTRATIVE CASE-STUDY

The hypothesis of vectorial hemisphericity predicts that left hemisphe ric intrusions of the right hemispheric equivalent of the sense of sel f should be associated with the experience of a ''presence'' of someon e else. The neurophenomenological profile of a woman whose medical his tory satisfied these theoretical criteria (verified electrical anomali es that could encourage phasic discharges within the right temporal lo be and atrophy within the left temporoparietal region) is presented. I n addition to interactions between electrical seizures and thinking, s be reported a long history of sensed presences, ego-alien intrusions, and ''sudden knowing of the subsequent sequences of seizures'' before they occurred clinically. The existence of these neurocognitive proces ses demands a reevaluation of the psychiatric default explanations of ''hysteria'' and questions the belief that ''awareness during seizures '' or ''premonition of subsequent somatosensory experience'' contraind icates an epileptic process.