Hearing Voices: The Histories, Causes and Meanings of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations
Cambridge University Press, 4/5/2012
EAN 9781107007222, ISBN10: 1107007224
Hardcover, 470 pages, 23.5 x 15.7 x 2.7 cm
Language: English
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.
Introduction
Part I. A History of Hearing Voices
1. From Ancient Mesopotamia to the pre-Reformation world
2. Political voices
religion, medicine and hearing voices
3. From the birth of psychiatry to the present day
Part II. The Phenomenology and Lived Experience of Hearing Voices
4. The phenomenology of hearing voices in people with psychiatric diagnoses
5. The lived experience of hearing voices in individuals diagnosed with a psychotic disorder
or, the journey from patient to non-patient
6. Beyond disorder
religious and cross-cultural perspectives
7. The phenomenology of hearing voices in people without psychiatric diagnoses
Part III. The Causes of Hearing Voices
8. Neuroscience and hearing voices
it's the brain, stupid?
9. Neuropsychological models I
inner speech
10. Neuropsychological models II
memory and hypervigilance
11. The wound is peopled
from world to brain and back again
Part IV. The Meanings of Hearing Voices
12. The struggle for meanings
Conclusion
moving towards new models of hearing voices
Appendix A
AVHs and antipsychotic medication
References
Index.
'The book brings together contributions from biological and psychological research, and more originally, it documents the history of hearing voices and the meaning of such experiences. Dr McCarthy-Jones's book is grounded on scientific research and comprehensively researched historical material. The book is a real feast, and Dr McCarthy-Jones charms us with his lively narrative. The book will appeal to modern 'voice-hearers', clinicians, and scholars of auditory hallucinations.' Flavie Waters, University of Western Australia