THE DISRUPTION OF THE SENSE OF SELF IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - POTENTIAL LINKS WITH DISTURBANCES OF INFORMATION-PROCESSING

It is argued in this paper that the disruption of one aspect of the 's ense of self' in schizophrenia, that relating to the continuity of con scious experience and the organization of action, may be linked to cur rent models of the information-processing disturbance prominent in the disorder. The 'sense of self in normal persons in part results from t he consistent manner in which contextually appropriate stored material operates on sensory input. If, as has been proposed, there is in schi zophrenia a disruption in the moment-by-moment integration of these so urces of information, then a disturbance in the 'sense of self is impl icit in the cognitive model. A consideration of action identification theory (Vallacher & Wegner, 1987) permits Further links to be made, si nce higher-level action identities are viewed as being practically syn onymous with self-defining significance. It is suggested that che info rmation-processing disturbance results in a tendency to low-level acti on identification and a gradually developing instability in the sense of personal identity.