Title: Dissociation, Delusion and the Splitting of the Self in the Trial by Franz Kafka: Phenomenology Andneurobiology of Schizophrenia

Speaker: Dr. ElisabeteCastelon, Federal University of Grande Dourados, Brazil

Time: 10:30-11:30, September 26, 2019

Location: Third Floor Lobby, Lui Che Woo Building

Abstract:

I willdiscuss the mental processes of dissociation, disorientation and delusion thattake place in the prodromal states of schizophrenia and their representation inThe Trial and in other literary and private writings by Franz Kafka. I willrelate how disorders of the self and disorders of thought, both crucial aspectsof the schizophrenic experience, may arise from the false attribution ofsalience and false associative learning caused by hyperactivity of dopaminergicfunction associated with chaotic firing of dopaminergic neurons. I will showhow Kafka leads not just the protagonist of The Trial, but even more the readerto experience a quasi-delusional state. Finally, I will discuss therelationship between the perturbation of thought and disorientation of mind,aspects of schizophrenia evoked by the novel in the reader, and the need of ourbrains for empathy and predictability.

Host: Dr. Yulong Li