Hearing Voices The Histories, Causes and Meanings of Auditory The meanings and causes of hearing voices that others cannot hear (auditory verbal hallucinations, in psychiatric parlance) have been debated for thousands of years. Voice-hearing has been both revered and condemned, understood as a symptom of disease as well as a source of otherworldly communication. Those hearing voices have been viewed as mystics, potential psychiatric patients or simply just people with unusual experiences, and have been beatified, esteemed or accepted, as well as drugged, burnt or gassed. This book travels from voice-hearing in the ancient world through to contemporary experience, examining how power, politics, gender, medicine and religion have shaped the meaning of hearing voices. Who hears voices today, what these voices are like and their potential impact are comprehensively examined. Cutting-edge neuroscience is integrated with current psychological theories to consider what may cause voices and the future of research in voice-hearing is explored. simon mc carthy-jones is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Macquarie University s Centre for Cognitive Science, in Sydney, Australia.
Hearing Voices The Histories, Causes and Meanings of Auditory
cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: /9781107007222 # 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McCarthy-Jones, Simon, 1978 Hearing voices : the histories, causes, and meanings of auditory verbal hallucinations /. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-00722-2 (Hardback) I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Hallucinations history. 2. Hallucinations psychology. 3. Auditory Perception physiology. 4. Hallucinations etiology. 5. Mental Disorders history. 6. Public Opinion history. WM 204] 616.89 dc23 2011035576 ISBN 978-1-107-00722-2 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For those whose voices have not been heard (yet) With gratitude to my wife, whose love creates me
Contents List of figures List of tables List of text boxes page ix x xi Introduction 1 Part I A history of hearing voices 9 1 From Ancient Mesopotamia to the pre-reformation world 11 2 Political voices: religion, medicine and hearing voices 38 3 From the birth of psychiatry to the present day 58 Part II The phenomenology and lived experience of hearing voices 97 4 The phenomenology of hearing voices in people with psychiatric diagnoses 101 5 The lived experience of hearing voices in individuals diagnosed with a psychotic disorder: or, the journey from patient to non-patient 134 6 Beyond disorder: religious and cross-cultural perspectives 149 7 The phenomenology of hearing voices in people without psychiatric diagnoses 170 Part III The causes of hearing voices 189 8 Neuroscience and hearing voices: it s the brain, stupid? 191 9 Neuropsychological models I: inner speech 223 vii
viii Contents 10 Neuropsychological models II: memory and hypervigilance 265 11 The wound is peopled: from world to brain and back again 284 Part IV The meanings of hearing voices 313 12 The struggle for meanings 315 Conclusion Moving towards new models of hearing voices 355 Appendix A: AVHs and antipsychotic medication 375 References 384 Index 439
Figures Figure 8.1 The cortex of the brain page 192 Figure 8.2 Areas of direct brain stimulation resulting in auditory hallucinations 193 ix
Tables Table 6.1 Cross-cultural prevalence of AVHs in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia page 160 Table 7.1 Hearing voices in the general population (selected large-scale studies) 172 Table 7.2 Hearing voices in children and adolescents in the general population 178 Table 7.3 Estimated prevalence of voices by diagnosis 186 Table 8.1 Structural studies comparing SZ:AVHþ to healthy controls 197 Table 8.2 Grey matter volumes in participants with SZ:AVHþ compared to SZ:AVH 198 Table 8.3 Correlations of severity of AVHs with grey matter volumes 199 Table 8.4 Diffusion tensor imaging studies of AVHs 201 Table 8.5 Functional imaging studies of AVHs in SZ:AVHþ 204 Table 8.6 Summary of neurophysiological findings 217 Table 11.1 AVHs and childhood sexual abuse in psychiatric patients 291 Table 11.2 AVHs and childhood sexual abuse in non-psychiatric populations 291 Table 11.3 AVHs in those with and without childhood sexual abuse 293 Table C.1 Type 1 and Type 2 AVHs 356 x
Text boxes Box I.1 Ten questions regarding hearing voices page 3 Box 1.1 The root of the term hallucination 22 Box 1.2 The voices of Joan of Arc 33 Box 2.1 St Teresa s voice-hearing experiences 43 Box 2.2 Voice-hearing in the sixteenth century in a Jewish Box 2.3 context 47 A voice-hearer in the eighteenth century: William Cowper 55 Box 3.1 Voices at the birth of psychiatry in France 63 Box 3.2 Voices at the birth of psychiatry in Great Britain 65 Box 3.3 The indomitable Georgina Weldon 68 Box 3.4 Hearing voices in a First World War private 76 Box 3.5 Jung and hearing voices 79 Box 12.1 The voices of Robert Schumann 338 Box 12.2 Bad vibrations: the Beach Boys Brian Wilson 339 Box 12.3 The Maastricht approach to hearing voices 347 Box 12.4 An example of the Voice Dialogue technique 349 xi