A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combination of two conscious states of brain wakefulness and REM sleep. They are distinguishable from several related phenomena, such as dreaming, which does not involve wakefulness; pseudohallucination, which does not mimic real perception, and is accurately perceived as unreal; illusion, which involves distorted or misinterpreted real perception; and mental imagery, which does not mimic real perception, and is under voluntary control. Hallucinations also differ from "delusional perceptions", in which a correctly sensed and interpreted stimulus is given some additional significance.
Kurt Schneider was a German psychiatrist known largely for his writing on the diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia, as well as personality disorders then known as psychopathic personalities.
The Hearing Voices Movement (HVM) is the name used by organizations and individuals advocating the "hearing voices approach", an alternative way of understanding the experience of those people who "hear voices". In the medical professional literature, ‘voices’ are most often referred to as auditory verbal hallucinations. The movement uses the term ‘hearing voices’, which it feels is a more accurate and 'user-friendly' term.
Hearing Voices Networks, closely related to the Hearing Voices Movement, are peer-focused national organizations for people who hear voices and supporting family members, activists and mental health practitioners. Members may or may not have a psychiatric diagnosis. Networks promote an alternative approach, where voices are not necessarily seen as signs of mental illness and regard hearing voices as a meaningful and understandable, although unusual, human variation. Voices are not seen as the problem, rather it is the relationship the person has with their voices that is regarded as the main issue.
Karel August Goeyvaerts was a Belgian composer.
Auditory imagery is a form of mental imagery that is used to organize and analyze sounds when there is no external auditory stimulus present. This form of imagery is broken up into a couple of auditory modalities such as verbal imagery or musical imagery. This modality of mental imagery differs from other sensory images such as motor imagery or visual imagery. The vividness and detail of auditory imagery can vary from person to person depending on their background and condition of their brain. Through all of the research developed to understand auditory imagery behavioral neuroscientists have found that the auditory images developed in subjects' minds are generated in real time and consist of fairly precise information about quantifiable auditory properties as well as melodic and harmonic relationships. These studies have been able to recently gain confirmation and recognition due to the arrival of Positron emission tomography and fMRI scans that can confirm a physiological and psychological correlation.
Jim van Os is a Dutch academic and psychiatrist. He is Professor of Psychiatry and medical manager of the Brain Center at Utrecht University Medical Center, the Netherlands.
Thought broadcasting is a type of delusional condition in which the affected person believes that others can hear their inner thoughts, despite a clear lack of evidence. The person may believe that either those nearby can perceive their thoughts or that they are being transmitted via mediums such as television, radio or the internet. Different people can experience thought broadcasting in different ways. Thought broadcasting is most commonly found among people who have a psychotic disorder, specifically schizophrenia.
Paraphrenia is a mental disorder characterized by an organized system of paranoid delusions with or without hallucinations and without deterioration of intellect or personality.
Anomalous experiences, such as so-called benign hallucinations, may occur in a person in a state of good mental and physical health, even in the apparent absence of a transient trigger factor such as fatigue, intoxication or sensory deprivation.
An auditory hallucination, or paracusia, is a form of hallucination that involves perceiving sounds without auditory stimulus. While experiencing an auditory hallucination, the affected person hears a sound or sounds that did not come from the natural environment.
Experience Focussed Counselling (EFC) is a normalising, non-pathologizing approach to counselling or psychosocial support/accompaniment aimed particularly, but not exclusively, at persons who may be distressed by experiences such as hearing voices aka auditory hallucinations, visions or other phenomena which are commonly associated with diagnoses such as schizophrenia and other mental disorders.(Schnackenberg & Burr, 2017)
Lucien Goethals was a Belgian composer.
A pseudohallucination is an involuntary sensory experience vivid enough to be regarded as a hallucination, but which is recognised by the person experiencing it as being subjective and unreal. By contrast, a "true" hallucination is perceived as entirely real by the person experiencing it.
Rufus May is a British clinical psychologist best known for using his own experiences of being a psychiatric patient to promote alternative recovery approaches for those experiencing psychotic symptoms. After formally qualifying as a clinical psychologist, he then disclosed that he had been previously detained in hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
A thesis circle involves a number of students and at least one professor, lecturer or instructor who collaborate in supervising and coaching final projects. This tool for supervising students working on their thesis, also known as "thesis rings", was developed in the 1990s at Maastricht University.
Alexandre Dorothée Marie Adriaan Charlotte Escher was a Dutch mental health advocate and researcher.
A religious delusion is defined as a delusion, or fixed belief not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence, involving religious themes or subject matter. Religious faith, meanwhile, is defined as a belief in a religious doctrine or higher power in the absence of evidence. Psychologists, scientists, and philosophers have debated the distinction between the two, which is subjective and cultural.
Herman Meïr van Praag is a Dutch psychiatrist. He was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Groningen, Utrecht University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Maastricht University. Van Praag is considered the founder of biological psychiatry in the Netherlands. After his retirement, he has written extensively on religiosity.
Harry Oosterhuis is a historian and lecturer at Maastricht University.
