Professor Olaf Blanke works in the neurology department for the HUG (Geneva) and at the Epfl., and is known for his recent research on « la décorporation » (the sensation of leaving one’s body to experience a division of self). His studies concern the representation of bodily patterns when one’s awareness of self is altered. Author of an article on the perception of one’s body in the art of an autoportrait, he is pleased to draw from the material arts to continue his research.
Among all the autoscopic phenomena (in which the subject sees himself) studied by the sciences, the most spectacular is known as an « out-of-body » experience. The person leaves his body and sees himself, generally from a point slightly higher up, such as the angle of a ceiling. In French this is what one calls « une décorporation ». Similar to a classic autoscopic hallucination, the person sees his double beside him. Each individual can experience a « décorporation » once or twice in a lifetime, but patients suffering from brain damage or specific migraines can experience this phenomenon regularly and it can become quite agonizing.