Abstrakt
The presented chapter aims to employ the principles of cognitive semiotics for the study of mental disorders. Cognitive semiotics offers an interdisciplinary approach that includes semiotic analysis on the one hand and a psychiatric perspective on the other.
This approach is demonstrated by the example of schizophrenia. Hallucinations, as one of the major symptoms of schizophrenia, are specific due to their indexicality, rather than being 'misinterpretations of the inner speech'.
The paper further describes the indexical character of hallucinations and their similarities with, and differences to other cognitive processes (memory, imagination, perception). The concept of indexicality of hallucinations is compared with neuropsychiatric theories of hallucinations.
In sum, the aim of the chapter is to show how the cognitive semiotics approach can offer new perspectives in the study of mental disorders, and schizophrenia specifically.