During the last decade, philosophical, psychological and neurobiological approaches to the self have increasingly overcome their disciplinary constraints and entered into a productive dialogue. Different levels of self-awareness such as the 'core' or 'minimal self' and the 'extended' or 'narrative self' have been distinguished and investigated from a phenomenological, developmental and neurocognitive perspective ... [more]

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The unity of body, mind and spirit: Launch of the European research project "DISCOS"

Mental health is related to a sense of being a person in tune with body, mind and spirit. This integrity can be disturbed or even disintegrated by mental illness such as schizophrenia, depression or borderline disease. There seems to be an increasing tendency for the individual personality structure to break apart. Accelerating changes of society, the dissolution of family ties as well as the decline of traditional role models may well be vital influences on this development. To achieve and to maintain a stable identity appears to be more and more difficult under these conditions.

At the same time, however, this very notion of an autonomous human Self is being challenged and questioned by particular sciences such as Neurology or Cultural Sociology. Could it be possible that the Self is nothing but a product of imagination, an illusionary construct of the brain? Is it true that our self-autonomy is based on self-deception?

The threatened integrity of the Self confronts society with a fundamental cultural, scientific and therapeutic quest which can only be solved if Natural Sciences and Humanities work together. In the past these disciplines tended to observe just that particular part of the phenomenon of a ?brittle? Self which could be described and explained by their own method respectively.

A co-operation of countries and faculties

It is the aim of the project DISCOS (Disorders of Coherence of the Embodied Self) to overcome such limitations by focussing on the integration of disciplines, the exchange of researchers and the organisation of a forum for joined findings. This multinational research project consisting of nine European faculties from seven different countries under the leadership of the universities of Heidelberg and Munich will be funded by the EU with 3 mill. ? over the next four years. Using an interdisciplinary approach it intends to investigate the basics and pathological dysfunction of the human personality. Outcomes from both the Natural Sciences and Humanities perspectives shall be fused to a holistic understanding contributing to an improvement in the treatment of mental illness. DISCOS is facilitated by the universities of Heidelberg (psychiatry), Munich (psychosomatic medicine), Mainz (philosophy), Kopenhagen (psychology, psychopathology), Lüttich, Lyon and Parma (neuro sciences).

As the only non-university institution, Schattauer is the official co-operation partner of DISCOS. For the duration of this European Commission project the German medical publisher will be exclusively responsible for public relations, the continuous communication between the research institutes, and the publication of the interim reports after two years as well as the final report after four years.

(Contact: Dipl.-Psych. Dr. med. Wulf Bertram, wulf.bertram(at)schattauer.de)