When soft voices die: auditory verbal hallucinations and a four letter word (love)

Understandings of auditory verbal hallucinations (also referred to as "hearing voices"), and help for people distressed by them, are dominated by a biomedical framework. Yet, many people who have sought help for the distress and/or impairment caused by hearing voices express dissatisfactio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mental health, religion & culture
Authors: McCarthy-Jones, Simon (Author) ; Davidson, Larry (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis 2013
In: Mental health, religion & culture
Year: 2013, Volume: 16, Issue: 4, Pages: 367-383
Further subjects:B Psychosis
B Schizophrenia
B hearing voices
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Understandings of auditory verbal hallucinations (also referred to as "hearing voices"), and help for people distressed by them, are dominated by a biomedical framework. Yet, many people who have sought help for the distress and/or impairment caused by hearing voices express dissatisfaction with treatment solely within this framework, highlighting the need for a more rounded, biopsychosocial-spiritual approach. This paper examines the neglected role of a fundamental part of human experience, love, in the experience of hearing voices. First, we argue a lack of love is likely to play a causal role in voice-hearing experiences. Second, we demonstrate that a lack of love is central to the distress and dysfunction often caused by hearing voices. Finally, we show that love plays a core role in recovery. Given this centrality of love, we argue that an interdisciplinary approach to hearing voices involving the mind sciences and theology/religion may be fruitful. The relevance of this for psychotherapeutic interventions for people who hear voices is discussed.
ISSN:1469-9737
Contains:Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2012.674498