People with schizophrenia often have a hard time explaining what it’s like to hear voices.
“There’s a huge range of voice hearing experiences,” says Nev Jones, postdoctoral fellow in anthropology at Stanford University who was treated for her psychotic symptoms in 2007.
At the Cusp of Delusion
This is the third story in a three-part series looking at the changing science of schizophrenia and emerging treatments.
There can be “voices that are more thought-like,” says Jones, “voices that sound like non-human entities, voices that are perceived as the direct communication of a message, rather than something you’re actually hearing.”
Voices aren’t always voices, either. They can sound more like a murmur, a rustle or a beeping.
But when a voice is a recognizable voice, more than often, it’s not very nice. “It’s not like wearing an iPod”, says the Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrman. “It’s like being surrounded by a gang of bullies.”
Read / listen to the full story: