Yes, some people are not afraid of their invasion of consciousness. Do they need help?
“I never get lonely. When I’m sad or need advice on what to do, I don’t seek company because I can have a conversation inside myself,” says Ranjit, 32, a resident of the Indian city of Chennai, who hears voices clearly from time to time, with a smile. His calm story is completely different from our ideas about hallucinations. We used to think that these are frightening phantoms that demand, threaten, push to wild deeds, drive you crazy. But if they can be harmless and even inspiring, does this mean that our views need to be revised?
Anthropologists at Stanford University (USA)* became interested in this issue. They asked patients in psychiatric hospitals in India, Ghana and California to talk about their auditory hallucinations. It turned out that their perception depends on the culture in which the person was brought up. For example, patients with schizophrenia in India and Africa were much more likely than Americans to describe their hallucinations as inspiring, kind, and even “playful.” Some believed that at such moments they were talking with a god or the spirits of their ancestors. Anthropologist Valentina Kharitonova explains it this way: “The culture in which the inhabitants of these countries are brought up implies the constant presence of otherworldly forces in a person’s life. And therefore, it is natural for them to see, hear, feel them next to them at any moment. And the sound of extraneous voices in your mind is perceived as the norm; the same goes for the human environment. This does not mean that hallucinations in such communities are not paid attention at all. But the decision on whether help is needed is often made not by doctors, but by sorcerers or shamans. They make a “diagnosis” and decide what to do.”
A study by Stanford anthropologists gives those who hear voices hope to learn to control their own condition, program director Tanya Luhrmann is sure: “Those who perceive the voice not as an obsession, but as an interlocutor equal to themselves, as a rule, are generally better manages to manage his condition. In her opinion, such an approach could be an addition to drug therapy. “But only for chronic disorders,” adds psychiatrist Pavel Rumyantsev. – In these cases, adaptation to one’s state just begins with the acceptance of one’s hallucinations. Adjusting to a life that has voices requires a willingness to interact with them, not just medication and the tolerance of others. For example, my colleague learned to enter into a dialogue with them, she could even ask not to disturb her during work. So it is possible and such an attitude to this phenomenon.
* British Journal of Psychiatry, online publication of 26 June 2014.