Interpreting verbal hallucinations: The relevance of Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics.

Abstract

This article seeks to defend the thesis that Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (AVHs) can be interpretable and meaningful phenomena. By meaningful, I mean to argue that AVHs can be motivated events-even if they are experienced as alien and uncontrollable-and, as such, they are expressions the meanings of which can be seen as determined in a manner comparable with dialogical speech. In working toward a hermeneutic of AVHs, I will begin by reviewing pertinent literature that justifies the claim that we can view certain cases of AVHs as essentially involving a disruption to one's relationship with inner speech and thought. From here, given a view of AVHs as fundamentally dialogical, I argue that the interpretation of AVHs ought to be grounded within an analysis of the nature of language and understanding. For this, I will turn to the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, whose ontology of language can be said as being formulated via an explication of linguistic understanding as it occurs in conversation and, thus, of significant relevance to understanding the nature and meaning of AVHs as they are construed in this article. The hermeneutic framework developed in this article will be further elaborated on and applied by discussing a clinical example.

Neither saintly nor psychotic: a narrative systematic review of the evolving Western perception of voice hearing

“…Thus, the questioning of diagnostic categories related to AVH ( Woods, 2013 ) has led to research bringing a more detailed understanding of the similarities and differences between the phenomenon and the condition of psychosis ( Baumeister et al, 2017 ; Braun, Evrard and Génot, 2020 ; Moskowitz, Mosquera and Longden, 2017 ; Sommer and Van der Spek, 2016 ). Similarly, further study has shown how the phenomenon may be preferentially associated with psychosocial characteristics ( Longden, 2017 ), personal variables such as self-esteem and self-consciousness ( Fannon et al, 2009 ; Naudin et al, 2000 ), shame ( Woods, 2017 ), and the disruption of the relationship between an individual’s outward speech and their inner thoughts ( Brar, 2018 ). Finally, original studies have highlighted the role and place of gender in AVH ( McCarthy-Jones et al, 2015 ).…”