Maria Narimanidze
Who’s Talking to Whom? A Qualitative Study of Voice Hearers
Abstract
Historically, the understanding of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) has ranged from regarding them as spiritual communications, unconscious symbolic communications, or simply pathological symptoms devoid of meaning. Voice hearers themselves report highly varied accounts of living with voices, with effects ranging from the benign to debilitating. Research indicates that experiencing voices is not incapacitating in itself, nor is it a cause for psychiatric care. The ways people understand and cope with the experience are more important predictors of their overall impact. Recovery oriented movements, such as the Hearing Voices Network, as well as recent research, have shifted the focus to conceptualizing voice hearing from an interpersonal lens. In line with this view, the current qualitative study focused on exploring the dynamics underlying peoples’ relationships with voices using a relational psychoanalytic theory. 20 voice hearers were interviewed about their relationships with voices, generating five overarching themes. The themes included: 1) Subjective experience of relating to voices, 2) Features of communication with voices, 3) Positive aspects of relationship with voice, 4) Negative aspects of relationship with voices, 5) Hearing voices as a dynamic relational process. Findings indicate that many voice hearers have complex and evolving relationship with their voices that, in many ways, parallel how they relate to others within their relational matrix.