Abstract The experiences described in the Voices in Psychosis transcripts are incredibly varied and yet frequently explicitly labelled by participants as ‘voices’. How can we make sense of this? If we reflect carefully on uses of the word ‘voice’, we see that it can express at least two entirely different concepts, which pick out categorically different phenomena. One concept picks out a speech...
Abstract: Leah is a woman in her 40s hearing voices in the context of a recently diagnosed first episode of psychosis. Her voices represent a dynamic interplay between conflicting psychological and spiritual forces within her, which are various externalized, collaborated with, and related to, in an attempt to cope with, and make meaning amidst, multiple traumatic life events. This brief case...
Abstract: Reading the transcripts of phenomenological interviews with voice-hearers, one is left with a composite image of dark, silhouetted ‘voices’, ‘mooching’ in doorways with holes for faces. They whisper, scold, and insult the voice-hearer, eroding their trust in themselves and their self-worth and, in several cases, persuading the voice-hearer to self-harm. These shadowy and dangerous...