Self-monitoring accounts are the dominant cognitive account of the
positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions of control,
thought insertion and auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). These
symptoms arise, it is claimed, due to a failure or defect in a part of
a motor-control system whereby self-generated events are marked as
such. I shall argue that the appeal to self-monitoring is explanatorily
irrelevant to AVH and extend the argument to thought insertion as well.
The argument will make explicit three questions that any account
of
schizophrenia must answer for any positive symptom, and I show that
self-monitoring accounts fail to answer them. Instead, I shall argue
that the central feature of what I shall call "non-agentive" positive
symptoms is the persistent automaticity of the relevant episodes. As
the
notion of automaticity is oft used but poorly understood, I shall
define these notions and then provide initial answers to the three
essential questions.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Annette WinkelmannHumboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin
Berlin School of Mind and Brain
Luisenstra?e 56
10117 Berlin
Phone.: +49 30 2093-1706
Email: <a
href="mailto://annette.winkelmann@hu-berlin.de">annette.winkelmann@hu-berlin.de
www.mind-and-brain.de
<a
href="http://www.neuroscience-berlin.de">www.neuroscience-berlin.de