(Dis)Embodied Selves, Depersonalisation and Ghosts in the Machines Workshop

This event is a joint endeavor co-organised by:

• Co-Embodied Self Lab (CELab) at the Centre for Philosophy of Sciences, University of Lisbon (CFCUL), Portugal
• Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
• Unreal Charity, London, UK.

It brings together world-leading scholars, junior researchers, artists, clinicians and more importantly people with lived experiences of Depersonalisation to address key questions around this widely spread yet under-acknowledged condition. 

Joint efforts from philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, arts and computational neuroscience will address the following (non-exhaustive) questions:

• How does it feel to live with Depersonalisation on daily basis for more than 10 years?
• What does it mean to  ‘lose ’one’s sense of self?
• What is the relationship between the body, bodily movements and the self in people that feel detached from their bodies and from others?
• Can we tailor body- and movement-based potential interventions to alleviate depersonalisation?
• How can artists and people with lived experiences of depersonalisation can contribute to advance our understanding of this distressing condition?
• What does it mean to feel like a “machine”/”robot”, and how can research from social robotics help us better address this question?

In addition to the talks, our event will showcase two art performances around depersonalisation, multisensory immersive experiences and the sense of self throughout the entire event. 

Senscapes is all about creating immersive visual and musical experiences that put people in the center of altered psychological states. This is done by taking brainwave data from human participants, and converting this data into music and art.

Drawing Unrealness: Jodie Howard is an artist illustrator depicting what it is like to live with depersonalisation. Jodie’s amazing drawings will be displayed throughout the entire event to help get a better grip on the phenomenological subjective experiences of self-detachment as lived from a first person perspective.