Previously:
But any mention of this is another fine excuse to bring up “Synecdoche, New York” again, which you should go see.
“Are you convinced that you are dead? If so, you may suffer from a very rare and deeply bizarre mental illness”
I like the use of the word “may” in there, which implies the other choice: that you really are dead.
What if I am convinced I have no life?
What if I’m dead but convinced I’m alive?
Wait, isn’t BoingBoing purgatory?
I wear a “Dead Man” cap from Rogue Brewery, but it is not intended as a self-description.
I keep recommending The Ego Tunnel, by Thomas Metzger. He’s a philosopher, working on theories of mind and consciousness, and he’s done a lot of work in neuroscience, without being reductive. Instead of using thought experiments when talking about altered states of consciousness, he turns to research about actual altered states of consciousness.
One of the things he writes about is how consciousness is anchored in one’s awareness of one’s own body – and Cotard’s syndrome was one of the “exceptions that proves the rule”, showing what happens to consciousness when that anchoring is disrupted.
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