Hearing Voices Movement

The Hearing Voices Movement (HVM) is the name used by organizations and individuals advocating the "hearing voices approach",[1] 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.

The movement was instigated by Marius Romme, Sandra Escher and Patsy Hage[2][3] in 1987. It challenges the notion that to hear voices is necessarily a characteristic of mental illness.[4][5][6] Instead it regards hearing voices as a meaningful and understandable, although unusual, human variation.[7][8] It therefore rejects the stigma and pathologisation of hearing voices and advocates human rights, social justice and support for people who hear voices that is empowering and recovery focused.[9][10][11] The movement thus challenges the medical model of mental illness, specifically the validity of the schizophrenia construct.[12]

  1. ^ McCarthy-Jones, Simon (2012). "The struggle for meanings". In McCarthy-Jones, Simon (ed.). Hearing voices: the histories, causes, and meanings of auditory verbal hallucinations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 346–54. ISBN 9781139017534.
  2. ^ "The voice in your head". New Statesman. 24 March 2021. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  3. ^ "Patsy Hague: co-founder". intervoiceonline.org. The International Hearing Voices Network. 2014. Archived from the original on 19 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ^ Posey, Thomas B.; Losch, Mary E. (October 1983). "Auditory hallucinations of hearing voices in 375 normal subjects". Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 3 (2): 99–113. doi:10.2190/74V5-HNXN-JEY5-DG7W. S2CID 146310857.
  5. ^ Honig, Adriaan; Romme, Marius A.J.; Ensink, Bernadine J.; Escher, Sandra D.; Pennings, Monique H.A.; deVries, Marten W. (October 1998). "Auditory hallucinations: a comparison between patients and nonpatients". Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 186 (10): 646–651. doi:10.1097/00005053-199810000-00009. PMID 9788642.
  6. ^ Johnstone, Lucy (2011). "Voice hearers are people with problems, not patients with illnesses". In Romme, Marius A.J.; Escher, Sandra D. (eds.). Psychosis as a personal crisis: an experience based approach. Hove, East Sussex New York, New York: Routledge for The International Society for the Psychological Treatments of the Schizophrenias and other pychoses (ISPS). pp. 27–36. ISBN 9780415673303.
  7. ^ Hayward, Mark; May, Rufus (1 June 2007). "Daring to talk back: Is the experience of hearing voices ordinary or extraordinary?". Mental Health Practice. 10 (9): 12–15. doi:10.7748/mhp2007.06.10.9.12.c4308.
  8. ^ Woods, Angela; Romme, Marius A.J.; McCarthy-Jones, Simon; Escher, Sandra D.; Dillon, Jacqui (October 2013). "Editorial: special edition: voices in a positive light". Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches. 5 (3): 213–215. doi:10.1080/17522439.2013.843021. S2CID 144014190.
  9. ^ Romme, Marius A.J.; Morris, Mervyn (October 2013). "The recovery process with hearing voices: accepting as well as exploring their emotional background through a supported process". Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches. 5 (3): 259–269. doi:10.1080/17522439.2013.830641. S2CID 144639561.
  10. ^ Longden, Eleanor; Corstens, Dirk; Dillon, Jacqui (2013). "Recovery, discovery and revolution: the work of Intervoice and the hearing voices movement". In Coles, Steven; Keenan, Sarah; Diamond, Bob (eds.). Madness contested: power and practice. Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK: PCCS Books. pp. 161–180. ISBN 9781906254438.
  11. ^ Romme, Marius A.J.; Honig, Adriaan; Noorthoorn, Eric O.; Escher, Alexandre Dorothée (July 1992). "Coping with hearing voices: an emancipatory approach". British Journal of Clinical Psychology. 161 (1): 99–103. doi:10.1192/bjp.161.1.99. PMID 1638338. S2CID 24144548.
  12. ^ Romme, Marius A.J.; Morris, Mervyn (2007). "The harmful concept of Schizophrenia: outline for a more helpful and cause related alternative". Mental Health Nursing: The Journal of the Community Psychiatric Nurses Association. 27 (2): 8–12.