Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution
This theory-building article (2017) explores the phenomenological, neurophysiological and philosophical significance of drug-induced ego dissolution with classical psychedelics, dissociative anesthetics, and kappa-opioid receptor agonists and highlights their relevance for investigating the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the representation and the sense of self.
Authors
- Millière, R.
Published
Abstract
There is converging evidence that high doses of hallucinogenic drugs can produce significant alterations of self-experience, described as the dissolution of the sense of self and the loss of boundaries between self and world. This article discusses the relevance of this phenomenon, known as “drug-induced ego dissolution (DIED)”, for cognitive neuroscience, psychology and philosophy of mind. Data from self-report questionnaires suggest that three neuropharmacological classes of drugs can induce ego dissolution: classical psychedelics, dissociative anesthetics and agonists of the kappa opioid receptor (KOR). While these substances act on different neurotransmitter receptors, they all produce strong subjective effects that can be compared to the symptoms of acute psychosis, including ego dissolution. It has been suggested that neuroimaging of DIED can indirectly shed light on the neural correlates of the self. While this line of inquiry is promising, its results must be interpreted with caution. First, neural correlates of ego dissolution might reveal the necessary neurophysiological conditions for the maintenance of the sense of self, but it is more doubtful that this method can reveal its minimally sufficient conditions. Second, it is necessary to define the relevant notion of self at play in the phenomenon of DIED. This article suggests that DIED consists in the disruption of subpersonal processes underlying the “minimal” or “embodied” self, i.e., the basic experience of being a self rooted in multimodal integration of self-related stimuli. This hypothesis is consistent with Bayesian models of phenomenal selfhood, according to which the subjective structure of conscious experience ultimately results from the optimization of predictions in perception and action. Finally, it is argued that DIED is also of particular interest for philosophy of mind. On the one hand, it challenges theories according to which consciousness always involves self-awareness. On the other hand, it suggests that ordinary conscious experience might involve a minimal kind of self-awareness rooted in multisensory processing, which is what appears to fade away during DIED.
Research Summary of 'Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution'
Introduction
Millière frames drug-induced ego dissolution (DIED) as a reproducible alteration of self-experience produced by high doses of several classes of hallucinogenic drugs, characterised by the loss of self-boundaries and a breakdown of the ordinary sense of being a self. The Introduction situates DIED alongside similar phenomena in psychosis, mystical experiences and deep meditation, and argues that studying drug-induced cases in healthy participants offers a tractable way to investigate mechanisms that are otherwise unpredictable and etiologically complex in endogenous conditions. The paper sets out an interdisciplinary programme: first to document the phenomenology of DIED from questionnaires and narrative reports; second to review neurophysiological and neuropharmacological evidence bearing on its neural basis; third to assess what imaging studies of DIED can legitimately tell us about the neural correlates of the self; fourth to examine the hypothesis that DIED disrupts the ‘‘minimal’’ or embodied self; and finally to consider implications for computational models of selfhood and for philosophical debates about phenomenal self-awareness.
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Millière, R. (2017). Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00245
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