The Phenomenon of “Hearing Voices”: Not Just Psychotic Hallucinations—A Psychological Literature Review and a Reflection on Clinical and Social Health

Iudici, Antonio; Quarato, Maria; Neri, Jéssica

doi:10.1007/s10597-018-0359-0

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…These participants could then focus on change within the relationship with the voice(s) to enhance their wellbeing. Research with adult voice hearers into voice dialogue (Pérez‐Álvarez, García‐Montes, Vallina‐Fernández & Perona‐Garcelán, 2016), sense‐making in community samples (Iudici, Quarato, & Neri, 2019) and more recently virtual reality therapy (Dellazizzo et al., 2018) have also reflected the importance of helping the individual connect past experiences and relationships with the voices they hear to give the voice context. This may be more complex for distressing voices as they appear to have a less tangible form and fewer functions for young people to identify by themselves, as seen in Table 3.…”

Section: Analysis and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whispers, echoes, friends and fears: forms and functions of voice‐hearing in adolescence

Parry

Varese

2020

Child Adoles Ment Health

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Background: Despite the high prevalence of voice-hearing in childhood, research with adolescents aged under 16 years is scarce. Theoretical connections between clinical and developmental conceptualizations of voicehearing are limited, resulting in missed opportunities to explore unusual sensory experiences with young people. Methods: Demographic, contextual and qualitative data were collected through a web-based survey with 68 adolescents (M = 14.91; SD = 2.77) from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom and United States of America. A Foucauldian-informed narrative analysis captured phenomenologically meaningful individual accounts and systemically informed narratives. Analytic layers attended specifically to the form and function of voices, including relational, protective, distressing and nuanced experiences, offering new insights into individual, systemic and cultural interpretative narratives surrounding voice-hearing to inform research, policy and tailored support. Results: The average self-reported age of onset of voices was 9 years, 5 months. Reciprocal relationships with pleasant voices were evidenced through the narratives and characterization of voices, while distressing voices were described without reciprocity and the voices held greater power over the young person. Positive aspects of negative voices were discussed and are illustrated with a continuum matrix reflecting interpretation and related affect. Conclusions: Voice-hearing is a heterogeneous and often complex relational experience for young people, with structural inequalities, relational traumas and social isolation attributed causes of voice-hearing. Developing personal meaning-making mitigated voice-related distress through contextualizing the origin of the voices in past experiences, without attribution to mental illness. Recommendations are proposed for assessment, formulation and relational interventions that recognize the potential impact of the voice-child-other relationship upon psychosocial functioning and wellbeing.

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Section: Analysis and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whispers, echoes, friends and fears: forms and functions of voice‐hearing in adolescence

Parry

Varese

2020

Child Adoles Ment Health

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“…An online platform was selected as previous research indicated that this approach could be advantageous in gathering rich phenomenological data (e.g., Woods, Jones, Alderson-Day, Callard, & Fernyhough, 2015) and that participants appreciate the flexibility, anonymity, and privacy of this medium (Parry, Djabaeva, & Varese, 2018). A critically informed narrative analysis sensitive to personal sense-making (Iudici, Quarato, & Neri, 2018) and the sociocultural narratives that surround voice hearing was developed.…”

Section: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young people's narratives of hearing voices: Systemic influences and conceptual challenges

Parry

Loren

Varese

2020

Clin Psychology and Psychoth

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Despite the prevalence of voice hearing in childhood and adolescence, little qualitative research has been undertaken with young people directly to advance phenomenological and aetiological insights into their experiences and interpretations.Consequently, the researchers sought demographic, contextual, and qualitative data from 74 young people from eleven countries, aged 13-18 years (28% = male; 61% = female; 21% = Transgender and Gender Non-Binary [TGNB]), who selfidentified as hearing voices. A Foucauldian-informed narrative analysis yielded four analytic chapters, offering novel perspectives into individual, relational, systemic, and cultural interpretative narratives surrounding multisensory and multi-self voice hearing. Overall, young people reported heterogenous experiences of voice hearing and associated sensory experiences, and most participants reported voice hearing beginning between ages 8 and 11. Further, the emotions felt by the child, as well as reactions displayed by people around the child in relation to the voices, influenced voice-related distress and the nature of the voices in a triadic relationship. A continuum of multisensory features of voice content, nature, and relational significance is tentatively proposed to capture the breadth and depth of voice hearing for adolescents to offer a possible framework for future study and intervention design. Specifically, participants described that voice-related distress could be exacerbated by observed anxiety or internalized stigma about voice hearing, social isolation, and attribution to illness. These findings suggest that we may need to reconsider how the experience of hearing voices in childhood influences their relationships and how relationships influence the voice hearing experience. Further, young people seem to have a broad understanding of what the term "hearing voices" means, which could inform how researchers and practitioners work with this group of young people. Finally, participants described benefitting from multisensory coping strategies, such as imagery and meditation, which could offer important considerations for tailoring therapeutic interventions for adolescent voice hearers.

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“…In fact, for the most of the 20 th century, auditory hallucinations where considered as a pathognomonic symptom of schizophrenia. Mercifully, these experiences have been increasily studied in non-clinical populations since the 1980s, in order to better understand their features and prevalence, as well as improve their management and prevent the risk of developing severe discomfort or psychiatric disorders, (Salvini and Stecca, 2013;Holt & Tickle, 2014;Iudici, Quarato, & Neri, 2019). 'Voice listeners' themselves have greatly contributed to the better knowledge of these ostensibly odd phenomena often in collaboration with mental health professionals -especially the Dutch psychiatrist Marius Romme.…”

Section: Hearing Voicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions (NOMEs): Clues on the Nature of the Human Mind

Facco¹,

Pederzoli²,

Tressoldi³

2020

SSRN Journal

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The aim of this essay is to describe several ostensibly odd experiences considered implausible, illusory or hallucinatory phenomena, largely considered to be disorders of the neurological or psychological functioning from the ruling mechanist-reductionist perspective of neurosciences. A rigorous but open-minded neurophenomenological approach is required to properly investigate and understand such Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions (NOMEs). Individuals who experience NOMEs should not feel like they are outsiders or abnormal and should feel free to talk about their uncommon experiences, and professionals should listen to them with an open-minded, non-prejudicial and nonjudgmental approach. NOMEs challenges the ruling stance of medical and psychological science and suggest intriguing properties of human consciousness, which are likely to be incompatible with the accepted axioms and theories, showing the inescapable epistemological implications of their proper investigation and understanding.

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The Phenomenon of “Hearing Voices”: Not Just Psychotic Hallucinations—A Psychological Literature Review and a Reflection on Clinical and Social Health

Cited by 16 publications

References 88 publications

Whispers, echoes, friends and fears: forms and functions of voice‐hearing in adolescence

Whispers, echoes, friends and fears: forms and functions of voice‐hearing in adolescence

Young people's narratives of hearing voices: Systemic influences and conceptual challenges

Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions (NOMEs): Clues on the Nature of the Human Mind

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