Throughout history and even today there are people who hear voices who find their voices inspirational and comforting. These are facts that on the face of it are hard to square with the extremely negative way that the experience is regarded by psychiatry.
The researchers, practitioners and involved voice hearers involved in INTERVOICE believe it is mistaken to regard voice hearing as part of a psychopathic disease syndrome. Rather, they consider it to be more akin to a variation in human experience – if you like, a faculty or differentiation – something likeleft-handedness, that it is definitely not open to cure.
Research has shown that there are many people who hear voices, some of whom cope with their voices well without psychiatric intervention, it has also been found that there are many people who hear voices who can cope with their voices and regard them as a positive part of their lives. Neither is it the case that voices have always been regarded as a negative experience.
This section explores the positive aspects of the experience:
Click on title to go to page:
- Notable people who hear voices
- Cymru and Hearing Voices
- Lessons on voices from St John of the Cross
- Religious and Spirituality Perspectives
- Poetry
- Songs and Music
- ‘Samuel Beckett’s articulation of unceasing inner speech’
- “The Madness Of Adam And Eve: How Schizophrenia Shaped Humanity” by David Horrobin reviewed by Hywel Davies
- Hywel Davies pre-1940 Pembrokeshire Postcard Collection