IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rpsyxx/v5y2013i3p270-285.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The origins of voices: links between life history and voice hearing in a survey of 100 cases

Author

Listed:
  • Dirk Corstens
  • Eleanor Longden

Abstract

A data synthesis is presented from 100 clinical cases, 80% with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder, in which Romme and Escher’s “construct” method was used to formulate voice-hearing content and characteristics in relation to life events. Across the sample, most participants heard between two and five voices and the average duration of voice hearing was 18 years. At least one adverse childhood experience was reported by 89% of the sample, including family conflict, neglect, physical/sexual/emotional maltreatment, and bullying. In addition, a broad range of acute, precipitating stressors were associated with the onset of voice hearing itself in both childhood and adulthood. In 94% of cases, it was possible to clearly formulate the underlying emotional conflicts embodied by the voices (e.g., low self-worth, anger, shame and guilt). Representations for voice identity (e.g., disowned aspects of self, a family member, a past abuser) were formulated in 78% of cases. It is proposed that many individuals hear voices that make psychological sense in the context of life events, and that this information can be clinically applied in ways that serve personal recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Dirk Corstens & Eleanor Longden, 2013. "The origins of voices: links between life history and voice hearing in a survey of 100 cases," Psychosis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 270-285, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpsyxx:v:5:y:2013:i:3:p:270-285
    DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2013.816337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17522439.2013.816337
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/17522439.2013.816337?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rpsyxx:v:5:y:2013:i:3:p:270-285. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RPSY20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.