Anomalous Experience of Self and World: Administration of the EASE and EAWE Scales to Four Subjects with Schizophrenia

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to study anomalies of self-and world experience in schizophrenia from a phenomenological perspective through the use of the Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE) and Examination of Anomalous World Experience (EAWE) interviews. Four patients with diagnoses of schizophrenia were interviewed with both the EASE and the EAWE. A qualitative analysis of these interviews was carried out on all the data; quantitative scores were also assigned, based on the frequency and intensity of the items endorsed by the subjects. In the EASE, the subjects endorsed an average frequency of 45% of all items. In the EAWE, the subjects endorsed an average frequency of 26% of all items. Furthermore, the EAWE data indicated more heterogeneous profiles of experience than the EASE data. This heterogeneity is not surprising, given that the EAWE was designed to be a more broad-based or less targeted exploration of various changes likely to be associated with the schizophrenia spectrum (but also with certain other conditions). Our data suggest that although disturbances of world experience may always be present in schizophrenia, they may take numerous and varied forms. Because the experience of the world occurs across many different modalities, disturbances of this experience would be fundamentally less unitary, whereas the experience of the self presents a more coherent and unitary gestalt. These results show a certain overlapping between the scales while also indicating the potential value of a combined use of the two instruments. Finally, we discuss the relationship between experiential description and behavioral observation, and their potentially complementary value in exploring the first-person perspective, particularly in the case of experiences that occur at a more prereflective level.

A Phenomenological Paradigm for Empirical Research in Psychiatry and Psychology: Open Questions

“…However, only a fairly general description has been provided of how EASE’s domains and items were developed: singular contents of anomalous experience are conceptualized and interconnected within a comprehensive system of meaningful structural wholes or Gestalts , leading to the “core” underlying psychopathological configuration ( Nordgaard et al, 2013 ). A recent qualitative study on the responses to the two scales highlights the specificities of the phenomena described by EASE and EAWE, indicating that disturbances of world experience are fundamentally less unitary, while the experience of the self presents a more coherent and unitary Gestalt ( Englebert et al, 2019 ).…”

The “Territorial Self:” Theoretical Propositions for a Phenomenological Understanding of Schizophrenia

“…In a recent study [7], I exposed and discussed the contributions of the EASE and EAWE scales, but also the inherent limitations of the first-person perspective. I suggested that adding an "observed" dimension to the items on these scales could allow for an improved overall understanding of the DOI of original article:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evopsy.2021.03.011.…”

Le « soi territorial » : propositions théoriques à partir d’une compréhension phénoménologique de la schizophrénie

“…Dans une recherche récente [7], nous avons mis en lumière et discuté les apports des échelles EASE et EAWE mais aussi les limitations inhérentes à la perspective en première personne.…”