This chapter has attempted to demonstrate that significantly compromised intra- and interpersonal dialogues can help explain the experience of self-diminishment that often accompanies the appearance of schizophrenia. Such an account is useful because it both clarifies and helps explain a neglected facet of schizophrenia, and in a manner that preserves the first-person dimensions of the illness. Moreover, it does so in a way that helps synthesize observations from diverse theoretical perspectives. Second, we have presented three models of dialogical compromise that lead to experiences of...

This chapter has attempted to demonstrate that significantly compromised intra- and interpersonal dialogues can help explain the experience of self-diminishment that often accompanies the appearance of schizophrenia. Such an account is useful because it both clarifies and helps explain a neglected facet of schizophrenia, and in a manner that preserves the first-person dimensions of the illness. Moreover, it does so in a way that helps synthesize observations from diverse theoretical perspectives. Second, we have presented three models of dialogical compromise that lead to experiences of self-diminishment. These are gathered in Table 4.1.

We consider these models useful additions to the literature because they refine our feel for what it is like to undergo schizophrenia, and they help us distinguish some markedly different ways in which someone’s sense of self can be undermined over the course of the illness.