Expertise-by-Experience is increasingly influential in (Dutch) mental health care. However, the precise contribution of Experts-by-Experience is unclear, due to an epistemological dilemma at the heart of the concept of experiential knowledge: either it is a distinctively new form of knowledge in being subject-dependent but then becomes non-generalizable, or it is generalizable but no longer subject-dependent. This project aims to (i) employ tools from philosophy to resolve or sidestep this dilemma by scrutinizing the concepts underlying it, and (ii) establish a network of researchers, clinicians and Experts-by-Experience to share the results of this project and fuel further research on this topic.

A recent movement in the philosophy of mind engages with the study of animal cognition to counter our tendency to model cognition in general mainly on human consciousness. Since it is now widely recognized that human behaviour is to a large extent the result of unconscious, ‘subpersonal’ processes, paradoxically, a notion of cognition that is not based on human consciousness can help us understand human cognition better. ‘De-anthropomorphizing’ cognition, however, is harder than it seems: the assumption that animals think, decide, remember in the same way as we seem to do—namely, as conscious, brain-based reflection—is implicit, but ubiquitous in thinking about animal minds. The proposed research project therefore aims to develop a non-anthropocentric understanding of cognition. It takes its cue from the so-called Skilled Intentionality Framework (SIF), which defines cognition as the way organisms respond to possibilities for action offered by their environments. Because the SIF is currently applied to human cognition only, stage one of the project aims to integrate SIF with the notion of ‘embodied habits’—something we do skilfully without consciously thinking—to make it applicable to nonhuman cognition as well. Stage two consists of a case study, in which decision-making in humans and several nonhuman animals will be scrutinized. The project contributes to a new field of academic inquiry in which the relation between human and animal minds is discussed. The implications of this contribution for philosophy of mind, empirical animal research, cognitive science and ethics will be charted in the final stage.

In the past two decades, a variety of narrative theories on aspects of the human mind have been proposed as alternatives for more traditional, broadly "cognitivist" views. Reflective consciousness, a sense of self, and the ability to attribute reasons for action are all deemed to be narrative phenomena. Narrative theories of aspects of mind provide alternatives for more orthodox "cognitivist" approaches. Up till now, however, narrative theories on self, consciousness and reasons remain insular. No integrated account has been put forward that connects the roles played by narrativity in the overall functioning of the human mind. As a result, possible ways in which narrative theories of aspects of the mind may complement and strengthen each other into one full-blown, viable alternative for cognitivism, have not yet been explored. The proposed PhD project aims to fill this lacuna. The first stage of this project aims to develop an integrated account that connects the roles played by narrativity in consciousness, sense of self and the attribution of reasons for action. This account makes use of the generally overlooked fact that narrative theories of consciousness, self and reasons are all rooted in the tradition of philosophical thinking according to which the human mind is the "product" of our participating in socio-cultural practices. The second stage of the project will put the integrated account to use. It will develop a narrative theory of a key feature of the human mind in which the interconnection between consciousness, self and reasons is salient: the human ability to have self-knowledge and to be conscious of ones own reasons for action.

By speaking we undertake commitments. But what exactly is the role of the hearer? Does their silence mean assent? And sometimes we want to ‘put something on the table’ without taking on a commitment, for example by saying that someone else said it. What does that mean for our commitments? We answer these questions by means of a new experimental method where we measure the activity of the frowning muscle, which is known to become active in the case of moral indignation. In this way, we will come to a better understanding of what happens when we communicate.

Presently, there is an increasing call for self-management strategies in healthcare. Self-management involves regarding patients as expert-clients, actively involved in the management of their own care. This approach is argued to have great advantages: it holds the prospect of more efficient and (cost)effective healthcare, and converges with theoretical developments underlining the importance of patients self-experience. However, self-management in mental healthcare entails major conceptual problems requiring in-depth study from a humanities perspective in order to be solved. Self-management in mental healthcare can only be adequately realized when it is acknowledged that the self itself is a core problem in psychiatry and psychosomatics. Existing self-management approaches do not fully recognize this and limit themselves primarily to management of disease. Therefore, the proposed project conceptualizes and implements self-management as management of the self. Consequently, it establishes a conceptual framework for understanding the self and self-management in mental healthcare. To achieve this, the project builds on theories of the self from various humanities-disciplines (including narratology, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and ethics) and establishes a productive dialogue between these theories, and psychiatry and psychosomatics. It integrates the narrative, embodied, emotional, and intersubjective dimensions of self-experience, and investigates the ethical and clinical conditions under which management of the self can be realized. By collaborating with well-known healthcare and research institutions, and international, pre-established networks, the project provides insight in self-experience in psychiatry and psychosomatics and enables innovative approaches to self-management that can fulfill more fully, the promise of providing effective, efficient, and co-operative mental healthcare.