Atmospheres and Imaginary: What Delusions can Teach Us

This contribution offers a semiotic reading of atmospheres. Starting from the account proposed by Lobaccaro in this volume of a cognitive semiotics of delusions, we propose considering the initial phase of delirium, defined as Trema, as a litmus test for understanding the structural logics that characterize the pathic experience of atmospheres. Through a comparison with certain neo-phenomenological perspectives that have investigated the atmospheric phenomenon, it is suggested to consider, from a semiotic point of view, atmospheres as objects inextricably linked to imaginaries. Imaginaries are, in fact, regarded as narrative frames through which figurative scenarios and their related affordances can instantiate precise atmospheres, whose feelings are actualized by the subject who experiences them. The pre-delirious phase that characterizes the Trema is therefore considered marked by a detachment from the collective imaginaries that preside over the construction and perception of atmospheres. Not by chance, in the apophanic phase that follows, the subject finds themselves compelled to construct narrative worlds capable of accounting for the derealized and uncanny atmosphere experienced in the Trema.