Lots of details on the research project are here:
Avatar Therapy is a new approach to the treatment of auditory hallucinations (hearing voices). Computer avatars are first designed by patients to give a form to the voices they hear and then the avatars are controlled by therapists to encourage patients to oppose the voices so that the voices gradually come under the patient’s control.
Introduction
Auditory hallucinations are an enduring problem in the treatment of serious mental illness such as schizophrenia. About 25% of people with this diagnosis continue to experience persecutory hallucinations and delusions despite treatment with antipsychotic medication (Kane, 1996). Their capacity to work and make relationships is grossly impaired, often for the rest of their life. We have developed and evaluated a novel therapy based on computer technology which enables each patient to create an avatar of the entity (human or non-human) that they believe is talking to them. The therapist promotes a dialogue between the patient and the avatar in which the avatar progressively comes under the patient’s control.
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