Association of self-disturbances and hallucinations in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is accompanied by distortion of all mental functions, including thinking, speech, motivation, perception or general experiencing of the world and oneself. Theoretical part of the thesis describes the process of schizophrenia and its symptoms with focus on auditory hallucinations, which roughly 70% of people with schizophrenia have some experience with. Main contribution of the theoretical part is the summary of the self- disturbances concept, which incorporates for instance loss of control over parts of mental experience, disruption of boundaries between the person and its surroundings and other similar aspects that are for a person who never experienced them almost unimaginable, and are difficult to explain even for an individual who does experience these disturbances of oneself. The thesis puts theoretical outcomes of self-disturbances into perspective, as well as current approaches and knowledge. First part of the research validates that the newly developed method for measurement of self-disturbances acquires sufficient internal consistency. Results of the next part confirm that the self-disturbances measure varies among patients with schizophrenia and healthy volunteers in all of the individual domains. Last research part presents relationships between currently experienced..