Abstract
Hearing voices is often seen as paradigmatic of many people’s conceptions of what ‘madness’ is – hearing things that are not there – and a primary reason why people who hear voices are often assumed to be ‘so different from the rest of us’. And yet, depending on which study one reads, between 5% and 15% of adults hear voices. This is a higher percentage of the population than of people diagnosed with schizophrenia (1%). So, whilst voice hearing is often highly stigmatised, it is in fact a remarkably common phenomenon which is not confined to those with any particular psychiatric diagnosis. One reason for the stigma around voice hearing is that it is often assumed to be nothing more than a meaningless symptom of some kind of underlying pathology. The fact that voices may be meaningful and voice hearing may be a significant source of value is often overlooked.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 98-99 |
Number of pages | 2 |
Journal | Journal for the Study of Spirituality |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 18 Mar 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 18 Mar 2022 |