In this event, the members of the research-based course "Schizophrenia and Figurative Language" (April 2021 – March 2022) present their first research results. The project is affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry und Psychotherapy at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and is funded by the Berlin University Alliance (BUA).

This research-based course provides insight into current research on figurative language at the intersection of psychiatry, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. The so-called Proverbs Test, which is widely used in psychiatric studies and clinical diagnostics, seems to show that people with schizophrenia tend to interpret figurative expressions such as metaphors, proverbs, idioms, and irony literally. This "concretism" is usually explained by certain cognitive deficits. After critically examining these psychiatric studies and setting out their contestable background assumptions, this course instructs its participants to plan and conduct new experiments on figurative language comprehension collaboratively in small teams.

The event is addressed to students across all disciplines and at all levels.

Event program

Event link: https://hu-berlin.zoom.us/j/67790050993?pwd-K1ZMTldzZnRKeWZYWitZTVlwd1NOUT09
Meeting ID: 677 9005 0993
Password: 444405

Contact

Benjamin Wilck
Email: benjamin.wilck@hu-berlin.de