Consciousness  
& Its Pathologies

                    1997
             Ninth Annual Meeting

The recent progress in unraveling the mysteries and mechanisms of how the brain works has been paralleled by an equivalent attention to the problems of consciousness. Philosophy, cognitive science, the neurosciences, and the artificial intelligence fields have all produced thoughtful working models of how the brain functions to "produce" consciousness, yet the experience of consciousness remains elusive. Although the history of the medical sciences has shown that our understanding of normal functioning has been greatly advanced by the study of abnormal structure and function, there has been little integration between abnormalities of consciousness and self-consciousness, as understood by clinicians, and philosophical inquiries into the nature of consciousness. Day-to-day clinical psychiatry remains little influenced by philosophy and, similarly, philosophy has made little use of clinical studies. This conference is designed to bring together clinicians, researchers and philosophers interested in the study of consciousness and its pathologies, including considerations of heightened self-consciousness, such as hypnotic and trance states and the phenomena described as multiple personalities; and the interaction of emotional states and the experience of consciousness.

SATURDAY MORNING
CHAIR: Jennifer Radden, University of Massachusetts, Boston

9:30       WELCOME AND BUSINESS MEETING
              George Agich & Jennifer Radden

10:00      KEYNOTE ADDRESS #1
               Can Neurobiology Teach Us Anything About Consciousness?
               Patricia Churchland, University of California at San Diego, California

11:00      OPEN DISCUSSION

11:30      LUNCH BREAK

SATURDAY AFTERNOON
(each 20 min. paper will be followed by 10 min. of discussion)
CHAIR: Donald Mender, New York City

1:00       The Semantics Of Depersonalization Complaints
              Susanna Lundqvist & Filip Radovic, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

1:30       Time And Self-Consciousness In Schizophrenia And MPD: About The
               Pathologies Of The Narrative Unity Of Consciousness
              Jean Naudin, Dominique Pringuey, Jean-Michel Azorin, SHU
              Sainte-Marguerite, Marseilles, France

2:00       Mind And Consciousness: An Interpersonal Perspective
              Anthony James Korner, Sydney, Australia

2:30       Multiplex Vs. Multiple Selves: Criteria For Distinguishing Dissociative
              Disorders
              Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia &
              Owen Flanagan, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

3:00       AFTERNOON BREAK

3:30       Cross-cultural and Pragmatist Approaches to MPD
               Murray L. Wax, University City, Missouri

4:00       Without A Proper Definition, You Do Not See The Phenomenon: A
               Philosophical Analysis Of A Missing Diagnosis
               Helge Malmgren, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

4:30       Lack of Insight: Towards an Understanding of the Awareness Syndromes
              S. Nassier Ghaemi, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

5:00       RECEPTION

SUNDAY MORNING
(each 20 min. paper will be followed by 10 min. of discussion)
CHAIR: Jerome Kroll, University of Minnesota

9:00       Who Has Pathologies of Self? Patients' Perspectives
              Lloyd A. Wells, The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

9:30       Life Narratives And Therapy
              Eva Mark, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

10:00      Consciousness And The Self: Jaspers And Galitch
               Elena Bezzubova, Russian State Medical University, Moscow, Russia

10:30      COFFEE BREAK

11:00      KEYNOTE ADDRESS #2
               
               Gordon Globus, University of California at Irvine, Irving, California

11:50      OPEN DISCUSSION

12:15      LUNCH BREAK

SUNDAY AFTERNOON
CHAIR: Lloyd Wells, The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

1:30       Unconscious Experiencing
              Eric Gillett, Kentfield, California

2:00       A Semiotic Model Of Mind
              David D. Olds, M.D., New York, New York

2:30       Natural Kinds Of Consciousness: Attractors Or Eigenstates?
              Donald Mender, New York, New York

3:00       AFTERNOON BREAK

3:30       Dissociative Identity Disorder And The Postmodern Concept Of
              Consciousness As Reflections Of A Modern Western Self-Concept
              Christina M. van der Feltz-Cornelis, Willem van Tilburg, Free University
              Amsterdam, The Netherlands

4:00       Belief In Mind-Independent Reality Excludes Subjective Experience From
              Reality
              H.F. Muller, Verdun, Canada

4:30       Psychiatry and the Spiritual Path
              R. Andrew Schultz-Ross, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii

5:00       ADJOURNMENT

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Linda Muncy
Department of Psychiatry
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, Texas 75235-9070
Tel: 214-648-3393
Fax: 214-648-7980 
lmuncy@mednet.swmed.edu

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Last Modified March 4, 1997