COTARD SYNDROME
This project is inspired by people that suffer from Cotard syndrome. This rare neuropsychiatric disorder is characterised by losing body ownership or experiencing non-existence: complete disembodiment. Physicians and scientists that research this syndrome believe that it unlocks the mysteries of where our consciousness is located.
Susan (59, Britain): hospitalised claiming she felt like “a rotting corpse.” Juan (62, Spain): not only convinced he was dead, but also that his penis was disappearing. Bora (35, Korean): symptoms included her brain being “completely blank with no thoughts,” as if she no longer had a brain at all.
Susan, Juan and Bora were all later diagnosed with Cotard syndrome: a rare neuropsychiatric disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are already dead, do not exist or have lost parts of their body. While patients often are still able to walk, talk, and fulfill a range of normal functions, they do so while feeling they have lost ownership of their bodies.
The syndrome forces patients to question some of the most basic assumptions we have about our sense of self and, for this reason, many scientists believe that these patients might hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of human consciousness.
Dis_embodied collaborates with renowned scientists, physicians and people with Cotard syndrome to make this complex, at times abstract, syndrome more tangible to a wider audience.
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