Murmurs of thought: Phenomenology of hallucinatory consciousness in impending psychosis

摘要

First-person accounts and detailed phenomenological descriptions are decisive to improve our understanding of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). This is crucial in order to adequately appreciate the biographical-existential complexity of the "voices" and to increase the communication and share-ability of such experiences. Besides the clear normalizing/de-stigmatizing value, such an approach has an eminent therapeutic value since it offers a non-reifying way to approach the broad, gestaltic metamorphosis of consciousness which precedes fully formed, florid AVHs. However, an important feature - namely, the very experiential genesis of the voices before their manifestation as full-blown AVHs - has up to now not received sufficient attention. "Voices" indeed are often anticipated by subtle pre-psychotic distortions of the stream of consciousness -such as abnormal sonorization of the inner dialogue and/or perceptualization of thought - which could emerge at the beginning of the prodromal phase. We suggest that a careful attention to these not-yet psychotic precursors in their experiential continuity with AVHs could have important therapeutic implications.