Hearing the Unheard: An Interdisciplinary, Mixed Methodology Study of Women’s Experiences of Hearing Voices (Auditory Verbal Hallucinations)

Abstract

This paper explores the experiences of women who “hear voices” (auditory verbal hallucinations). We begin by examining historical understandings of women hearing voices, showing these have been driven by androcentric theories of how women’s bodies functioned leading to women being viewed as requiring their voices be interpreted by men. We show the twentieth century was associated with recognition that the mental violation of women’s minds (represented by some voice-hearing) was often a consequence of the physical violation of women’s bodies. We next report the results of a qualitative study into voice-hearing women’s experiences (n = 8). This found similarities between women’s relationships with their voices and their relationships with others and the wider social context. Finally, we present results from a quantitative study comparing voice-hearing in women (n = 65) and men (n = 132) in a psychiatric setting. Women were more likely than men to have certain forms of voice-hearing (voices conversing) and to have antecedent events of trauma, physical illness, and relationship problems. Voices identified as female may have more positive affect than male voices. We conclude that women voice-hearers have and continue to face specific challenges necessitating research and activism, and hope this paper will act as a stimulus to such work.

Working with consumers who hear voices: The experience of early career nurses in mental health services in Australia

“…; McCarthy‐Jones et al . ; Rosen et al . ), with evidence that voices are a meaningful defensive response to adversity (Longden ), and likely to be reflective of past negative experiences (Rosen et al .…”

“…People who hear voices develop a relationship with their voices: the nature of both the relationship (Beavan ; Romme & Escher ) and the content of the voices determines whether or not distress is experienced (McCarthy‐Jones et al . ; Rosen et al . ).…”

“…The predominant biomedical view of twentieth-century psychiatry has been that voice-hearing, (termed auditory hallucinations), is a meaningless manifestation of mental illness (Moskowitz & Corstens 2008). Studies have revealed links between childhood adversity and voicehearing (Andrew et al 2008;McCarthy-Jones et al 2015;Rosen et al 2018), with evidence that voices are a meaningful defensive response to adversity (Longden 2017), and likely to be reflective of past negative experiences (Rosen et al 2018). People who hear voices develop a relationship with their voices: the nature of both the relationship (Beavan 2011;Romme & Escher 2012) and the content of the voices determines whether or not distress is experienced (McCarthy-Jones et al 2015;Rosen et al 2018).…”

Şizofreni tanılı hastalarda yaşanan sorunlar, işitsel varsanılar ve algılanan sosyal destek

“…İşitsel varsanılar, şizofreninin temel psikotik semptomudur ve hastaların yaklaşık olarak %60 ile %80'inde görülmektedir [5][6][7][8] . İşitsel varsanılar genellikle sözlü sesler şeklindedir.…”

On shame and voice-hearing

“…Shame appears frequently in the first-person accounts of voice-hearers; 8 15 it is a focus of research investigating the now well-established links between voice-hearing, trauma and childhood sexual abuse; 16–18 and within a clinical context, cognitive–behavioural and compassion-focused therapies 19–24 explicitly address and seek to reduce voice-hearers' feelings of shame. Rather than attempt to survey and synthesise these literatures, I want here more modestly to return to first principles and consider how the experience of shame might relate to and reciprocally illuminate some experiences of hearing voices.…”