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Philosophische FakultätHusserl-Archiv

Dr. Erik Norman Dzwiza-Ohlsen

Dr. Erik N. Dzwiza-Ohlsen studied philosophy, psychology, and theology at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (2007–2012) and completed his PhD at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (2013–2018), published as Horizons of the Lifeworld (Fink, 2019). Following a Suhrkamp Fellowship at the German Literature Archive Marbach, he has worked at the University of Cologne—first at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne (2016–2021), and since 2022 at the Husserl Archives Cologne. He is a founding member of et al. – a Blog for Phenomenological Philosophy (2017), editor of the Schriften zur Phänomenologie und Anthropologie (since 2020), co-founder of the international network Phenomenology of Dementia and Aging (since 2021), as well as the research group New Medical Humanities Cologne (since 2023). His research centers on phenomenology, psychopathology, philosophical anthropology, expression and language theory, and medical humanities. Since 2024, he leads the DFG project Situational Expressivity in Dementia: From Hexis to Deixis and is currently finalizing his habilitation thesis, Philosophy of Dementia: Phenomenological, Psychopathological, and Anthropological Perspectives.

E-Mail: edzwiza[at]uni-koeln.de

Habilitation Project | Philosophy of Dementia: Phenomenological, Psychopathological, and Anthropological Perspectives

Dementia — an umbrella term for numerous age-related, chronic, progressive, incurable, and still irreversible diseases — ranks among the greatest medical and societal challenges of today and the future. It tests not only modern medicine and sociopolitical systems but also the very self-image of humankind, confronting notions of autonomy, reason, and dignity.

Dementia affects the whole person within their socio-cultural lifeworld, requiring theories that do justice to this complexity. As a step toward inter- and transdisciplinary dementia research, the book offers a comprehensive philosophical investigation of the most common form: Alzheimer’s dementia. It brings three traditions into dialogue — phenomenological, psychopathological, and anthropological — and unfolds in three parts:

The first part surveys key philosophical approaches to dementia in recent decades, guided by the question of self and personal identity. It emphasizes that embodied habits serves as a kind of long-term memory, offering a crucial resource as higher cognitive abilities progressively decline. The second part develops a phenomenological psychopathology of Alzheimer’s dementia, starting from the lived experience of affected individuals and analyzing the structural interplay of its three core symptoms: the progressive loss of orientation, language, and memory. In the spirit of Jaspers’ General Psychopathology, this is the first comprehensive phenomenological psychopathology of Alzheimer’s dementia, critically engaging empirical research from medicine, psychiatry, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and related fields.
The third part bridges prevention, therapy, and care through the lens of our embodied and embedded existence, proposing two therapeutic strategies: a context-specific approach that mobilizes bodily resources in areas such as design, architecture, and gaming; and a situation-specific approach that fosters communicative resources in face-to-face interaction.

DFG-Project | Situational Expressivity in Dementia: From Hexis to Deixis

The project advances care and therapy for people with dementia through philosophical conceptual and theoretical work. Its central question explores the potential of deixis to enhance interaction and communication in dementia. The project has three goals: (1) to develop a taxonomy of deixis, distinguishing verbal (e.g., pronouns), corporal (e.g., pointing gestures), and medial deixis (e.g., arrows); (2) to investigate therapeutic and care applications of deixis amid the progressive loss of orientation, memory, and language; and (3) to deepen understanding of human situatedness and situated expressivity.

Over the past three decades, a rich philosophical discourse on dementia has emerged, centered on self and personal identity. Two main approaches can be distinguished: deficit-oriented, emphasizing identity erosion through deficits, and resource-oriented, emphasizing the persistence of personal identity even in advanced dementia. This project aligns with the resource-oriented perspective, aiming to improve care and therapy. Specifically, it bridges two strands: (1) positioning theories, analyzing indexical expression in conversation, and (2) embodiment theories, viewing habitual (Hexis) expression as embodied long-term memory.

By combining these approaches, the project tackles two key areas in dementia research. First, it highlights the importance of embodied expression in light of language decline, addressing gaps in conceptual work on corporal deixis. Second, although (neo-)phenomenological research has advanced understanding of medial deixis, its application to dementia remains underexplored, despite enormous potential in art, design, architecture, and technology to mitigate orientation and language loss.

In sum, the project expands deixis beyond language to include two distinct non-verbal modes: corporal deixis, supporting communication in face-to-face interaction, and medial deixis, aiding spatial orientation. It fosters dialogue across philosophy, cognitive science, and life science, and aims to translate conceptual insights into practical implications for nursing and therapy, as well as to generate hypotheses for future empirical research.

Publications

 

Podcasts

Videos

Books

  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2019): Die Horizonte der Lebenswelt: Sprachphilosophische Studien zu Husserls ‚erster Phänomenologie der Lebenswelt‘, Paderborn: Fink. ISBN: 978-3-7705-6463-7. Reviewed by

  1. C. Ferencz-Flatz (2020) in Studia Phaenomenologica 20, 398-402. DOI. 10.5840/studphaen20202022
  2. D. D`Angelo (2021) in Husserl Studies 37(3), 303-304. DOI: 10.1007/s10743-021-09294-x
  3. M. Grafigna (2021) in Phenomenological Reviews, available at https://reviews.ophen.org/2021/01/08/erik-norman-dzwiza-ohlsen-die-horizonte-der-lebenswelt/?lang=de
  4. M. N. Guerrero (2021) in Investigaciones Fenomenológicas 18, 248-255, available at https://repositorio.uca.edu.ar/handle/123456789/15851

Papers in Journals

  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2024): Deixis and dementia: Insights from phenomenological philosophy, in: Language Sciences, Volume 106, 101663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2024.101663
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. & Kempermann, G. (2023): The Embodied Mind in Motion: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Prevention, Therapy and Care of Dementia, in: Frontiers in Psychology, Special Issue: The Challenges of Consciousness Research in Light of the Variations of Conscious Experience (ed. by A. N. Wendt & C. Gutland).
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2022): ‘Going Home Alone’? – On Disorientation, Unfamiliarity, and Mistrust in Alzheimer’s Dementia, in: Metodo, Special Issue: Familiarity and Togetherness (ed. by S. M. Lisco, S. Aurora & L. Tranas). DOI: 10.19079/metodo.10.1.109
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2021): Deixis – Grundzüge einer phänomenologischen Anthropologie des Zeigens, in: R. Becker, C. Bermes & D. Westerkamp (Hg.), Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie, Belonging/Zugehörigkeit, 2021/2, 113-132. DOI: 10.28937/9783787341061
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2021): Dementia as Social Disorder – A Lifeworld Account, in: Phenomenology and Mind, Special Issue: Phenomenology of Social Impairments (ed. by V. Bizzari, O. Bader, & T. Fuchs), 21, 74-87. DOI: 10.17454/pam-2106
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2021): Verloren sein – Der Verlust der lebensweltlichen Orientierung in der Alzheimer-Demenz aus phänomenologisch-psychopathologischer Sicht, in: Inter Cultural Philosophy, Journal for Philosophy in its Cultural Context, Heidelberg: Universitätsbibliothek. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/icp.2021.1.84400

Papers in Edited Volumes

  • Winniewski, R., Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E.N. (2024). The Lived Body in E-motion: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Dementia Diseases. In: Brencio, F. (eds) Phenomenology, Neuroscience and Clinical Practice. Contributions to Phenomenology, vol 131. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66264-5_10
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2023): Positionierung & Orientierung: Über die Vulnerabilität von Sprache und Leib in der Alzheimer-Demenz, in: C. Tewes (Hg.), Leiblichkeit und Verletzlichkeit: Ihre Bedeutung für Demenzerkrankungen und Personalität.
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2022): Stay in Touch! – Phänomenologische Überlegungen zum Einsatz von Robotik und KI in der Pflege bei demenziellen Erkrankungen am Beispiel von PARO, in: L. Nehlsen & M. W. Schnell (Hg.), Begegnungen mit künstlicher Intelligenz: Intersubjektivität, Technik, Lebenswelt, Weilerwist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 220-247. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748934493-220
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2021): Zwischen Erlebnis und Ausdruck. Zur Möglichkeit einer phänomenologischen Psychopathologie am Beispiel der Demenzerkrankung, in: F. Neufeld, C. Pasqualin, A. K. Rønhede & S. Wu (Hg.),Leben in lebendigen Fragen. Im Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Geisteswissenschaften, 435-460. DOI: 9783495825419-435
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2021): Verstummter Geist, verstummtes Leben? – Zur therapeutischen Bedeutung lebensweltlichen Ausdrucks bei Alzheimer, in: B. Schellhammer (Hg.), Zwischen Phänomenologie und Psychoanalyse. Im interdisziplinären Gespräch mit Bernhard Waldenfels. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748909330-181
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, Erik Norman (2021): A Lifeworld Account of Personal Identity, in: C. Tewes & G. Stanghellini (Eds.), Time and Body: Phenomenological and Psychopathological Approaches, Cambridge.
  • Dzwiza, E. N. (2018): The Situationality of the Lifeworld. Reflections on Key Terms Concerning Human-Animal Relations, in: T. Breyer & T. Widlok (Hg.), The Situationality of Human-Animal Relations. Perspectives from Anthropology and Philosophy, Bielefeld: Transcript, 9–29. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839441077-002

Editorships

  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (Hg.; 2025): Deixis – Zeigen – Pointing. Ansätze zu einer phänomenologischen Anthropologie, in: T. Breyer (Hg.), Schriften zur Phänomenologie und Anthropologie, vrs. Band 4, Darmstadt: WBG.
  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. & Speer, A. (Hg.; 2021): Philosophical Anthropology as an Interdisciplinary Praxis: Historical and Systematical Perspectives, Paderborn: Mentis.

Articles in Encyclopedias and Manuals

  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (vrs. 2026): ‚Sichtbarkeit‘; ‚Distanz‘; ‚Licht‘; ‚Phänomenologie‘, in: O. Müller & R. Zill (Hg.), Blumenberg-Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Wirkung, Stuttgart: Metzler.
  • Breyer, T. & Dzwiza, E. N. (2019): Phänomenologie. Leibliche Fundierung und lebensweltliche Artikulation des praktischen Selbst- und Weltbezugs, in: T. Bedorf & S. Gerlek (Hg.), Philosophien der Praxis: ein Handbuch, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

Peer Reviews

  • Dzwiza-Ohlsen, E. N. (2019): Hans Blumenberg. Phänomenologische Schriften. 1981–1988, in: Studia Phaenomenologica 19, On Conflict and Violence, Zeta Books: Bucharest.
  • Dzwiza, E. N. (2018): A. Arudpragasam, The Story of a Brief Marriage, auf: et. al – ein Blog für Phänomenologische Philosophie.

Translations

  • Dzwiza, E. N. (2020), Zeno van Duppen, Selbst- und Intersubjektivitätsstörungen in der Schizophrenie, in: T. Breyer & T. Fuchs (Hg.), Selbst und Selbststörungen, Schriftenreihe der DGAP, Band 8, Freiburg/München: Karl Alber.