Various aspects of self disorders have been reported in schizophrenia and some authors have regarded them as core symptoms of the illness. Autobiographical memory (AM) encompasses the memory of past personal events but also future thoughts and numerous self-related information, such as self-images.

Investigating AM in order to better understanding the cognitive mechanisms of the alterations of self in schizophrenia, considering that AM represents a crucial ground for the self.

Tool and methods of cognitive psychology.

Several studies demonstrated patients’ difficulty to mentally travel in time and to re-experience the person they were in past events. These findings point to alterations of the experiential component of self. Other studies showed that patients were impaired in their capacity to reason about past events and to find out the meaning of these events, this pointing to a weakness of the narrative self. Similar deficits have been observed in patients regarding future self-projection: patients have difficulty imagining detailed events that will happen in the future and to anticipate possible lessons of future important events. A part of this, the self in schizophrenia has been reported as being less consistent, less stable in time, more passive, and sometime strongly altered by delusional beliefs.

We will discuss the therapeutic implications of these findings by considering both cognitive remediation and narrative interventions to strengthen both AM and aspects of self in patients.