Can't You Hear Them?: The Science and Significance of Hearing Voices

by Simon McCarthy-Jones

Overview

The experience of 'hearing voices', once associated with lofty prophetic communications, has fallen low. Today, the experience is typically portrayed as an unambiguous harbinger of madness caused by a broken brain, an unbalanced mind, biology gone wild. Yet an alternative account, forged predominantly by people who hear voices themselves, argues that hearing voices is an understandable response to traumatic life-events. There is an urgent need to overcome the tensions between these two ways of understanding 'voice hearing'.

Simon McCarthy-Jones considers neuroscience, genetics, religion, history, politics and not least the experiences of many voice hearers themselves. This enables him to challenge established and seemingly contradictory understandings and to create a joined-up explanation of voice hearing that is based on evidence rather than ideology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784505417
Publisher:	Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Publication date:	04/21/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Simon McCarthy-Jones currently works as an associate professor in Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology at Trinity College, Dublin and has over a decade of research experience regarding the topic of hearing voices.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Desperately Seeking Silence. 2. Context, Not Cortex. 3. Religion Weaponizes Medicine. 4. Manufacturing Meaning. 5. There's Still Steel in Sheffield. 6. A Candle in the Dark. 7. The Psychiatric Reformation. 8. Variety with Commonality. 9. Doublespeak. 10. Only God Knows. 11. Follow the Trauma. 12. Certified Organic. 13. Beyond Diagnosis. 14. Two Point Five Percent. 15. Where to Start with Causes. 16. Breast Pumps from Hell. 17. Hypervigilance Hallucinations. 18. What Have They Done To You, Poor Child?. 19. Can Child Abuse Cause Voice-Hearing?. 20. Voice-Hearing as Memories of Trauma. 21. What Encourages Voice-Hearing After Trauma?. 22. The Galaxy in Your Head. 23. Grey Matter Changes in the Voice-Hearing Brain. 24. Where Wilder's Things Roam. 25. What is the Brain Doing When Someone is Hearing Voices?. 26. White Matter Changes in the Voice-Hearing Brain. 27. Who May I say is Calling?. 28. Take into the Air My Quiet Breath. 29. Meet you in Malkovich. 30. Right is Might. 31. Speak, Memory. 32. TPJ. 33. Vigorously Resting. 34. A Tranquilliser by Any Other Name?. 35. Antipsychotics: Heart-Warming and Heart-Breaking. 36. Enter Synapse.37. The Truths They Are A'changing. 38. The Untamed Prediction. 39. Neurodevelopmental Theories. 40. Are There Genes for Hallucinations?. 41. When the World Speaks, the Genome Listens. 42. Turning to Recovery. 43. The Long Talk to Freedom. 44. The Voice-Hearer's Stone. 45. The Master's Tools. 46. I Came a Stranger, I Depart a Stranger. 47. What Causes the Causes?. Conclusions. References

Editorial Reviews

An engaging enquiry into the psychology and neuroscience of voice hearing that explores hallucinated voices in all their fascinating forms.

Vaughan Bell

A remarkable book about voice hearing, which provides an accessible account of the science, but does not lose track of the meaning of the experience. It is compassionate, controversial and compelling!

Chris Cook

A brilliant and thoughtful travel into the complex experience of hearing voices. Superbly written, with intelligence, but also a delightful sense of humour, this book will become an indispensable addition to the bookshelves of clinicians, scientists and people who hear voices.

Renaud Jardri

On finishing this book my initial instinct was to re-read it in order to appreciate its insights for a second time. Can't You Hear Them? is not only a work of impressive scholarship but a compelling, beautifully-written story of human experience and endeavour.

Dr Eleanor Longden

Clinicians should recommend this volume to their patients, scientists should recommend it to their students, and voice hearers should recommend it to others in the voice hearing community. I cannot think of a better accolade than to say few would fail to benefit from reading this volume, irrespective of whether the audience is seeking answers to the experiences one is having or seeking guidance on the underlying mechanisms of voice hearing per se.

PsycCRITIQUESn Psychological Association

This is a little gem of a book, and a must-have for anyone working with, living with, or curious about voices.

Psychosis - Vanessa Beavan

With rigorous science, penetrating analyses, colourful and enjoyable prose, and an astonishing breadth of knowledge - Simon McCarthy-Jones has delivered a book that will undeniably be appreciated by many.

Frank Larøi

Clinicians should recommend this volume to their patients, scientists should recommend it to their students, and voice hearers should recommend it to others in the voice hearing community. I cannot think of a better accolade than to say few would fail to benefit from reading this volume, irrespective of whether the audience is seeking answers to the experiences one is having or seeking guidance on the underlying mechanisms of voice hearing per se.

American Psychological Association - PsycCRITIQUES

With rigorous science, penetrating analyses, colourful and enjoyable prose, and an astonishing breadth of knowledge - Simon McCarthy-Jones has delivered a book that will undeniably be appreciated by many.

Frank Larøi