The Unusual Empirical Situation in Psychological Disorders

Wittgenstein thought it was impossible to conceive of experiencing a pain and not know who had that pain. Our job as philosophers in collaboration with neuroscientists is to try and make sense of this experience, he says. The fact that the psychological cases show just how many components are involved in sustaining the idea that we have so effortlessly and easily available to ourselvesthat we are subjects and thinkers and agents. It may turn out that what we thought of as self-knowledge is extremely fragile and is dependent on well functioning and good integration of a number of subsystems.