#117 – Shauna Winram – Consciousness and the Phenomenology of Psychosis

Written by Podcasts. October 24, 2025

Consciousness can take many shapes; waking, dreaming, psychedelic, anesthetised. But how is a psychosis different from altered states where the sense of self can shift? And how can we begin to understand what happens during a psychosis? Today we have a wonderful guest, Shauna Winram, PhD candidate at School of Philosophy in Australian National University, that I am so glad shares her research and her personal perspectives with us.

TAP in to this SO interesting interview about:

– How different individuals may or may not realise they are in a different reality during such states – How the mental-health system often fails people in these states: lack of therapeutic support, stigma, disempowerment, and how social conditions (housing, work, relationships) influence whether someone with a mental-health challenge flourishes.

– How a continuum of consciousness potentially can reduce pathologising experiences

– Shauna Winram’s own experience of psychosis

-Just as biodiversity sustains life on Earth, neurodiversity and the diversity of consciousness sustain the human experience itself

-Not to romanticize the experiences either

-Balancing spirit and matter!

-What is global states?

AND MORE

THANK YOU for being with us

Youtube version: https://youtu.be/7w6qllvsyCA

Here is a link to Shaunas work:

https://philosophy.cass.anu.edu.au/people/shauna-winram

Her own web: https://www.shaunawinram.com/