Understanding the experiences of hearing voices and sounds others do not hear.
Anne Martha Kalhovde, Ingunn Elstad, Anne-Grethe Talseth
Qualitative Health Research November 2013 DOI: 10.1177/1049732313507502 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 14 |
| Population | People with mental illness who hear voices or sounds that others do not hear |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Hermeneutics Interviews Lived experience Mental health nursing |
| Key findings | The authors argue that the voices and sounds participants heard were experienced as intrusions in which the perceived intentions of others resounded and disrupted daily life, with the tones and contents of these perceptions echoing and amplifying past, present, and future experiences and concerns. They propose that exploring and attempting to understand these daily-life experiences may benefit voice hearers, their families, and health care providers. |
Abstract
In this article, we aim to contribute to the understanding of how people with mental illness experience hearing voices and sounds that others do not hear in daily life. We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 people and analyzed the interviews using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. The themes we arrived at included the following: hearing someone else or myself, am I losing my mind?, and daily life recurrently dominated by opposing voices. Our overall understanding of how the voices and sounds were experienced in daily life was that the intentions of others resounded intrusively in the participants and disrupted their lives. The tones and contents of these perplexing perceptions echoed and amplified past, present, and future experiences and concerns. The results elucidate the value that exploring and attempting to understand people's daily life experiences of hearing voices and sounds might have for the voice hearer, his or her family, and health care providers.
Comparable studies
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|---|---|---|---|
| Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences Cardiac arrest survivors | 2018 | Qualitative study | n = 34 |
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| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Evoking the ineffable: The phenomenology of extreme sports. Extreme sports participants across three continents, including BASE jumping, big wave... | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 15 |
| Phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience. Naturalistic inhaled N,N-DMT experiences posted to the r/DMT Reddit community | 2022 | Qualitative analysis | n = 3,778 |