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Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices

Moseley, Peter and Powell, Adam and Woods, Angela and Fernyhough, Charles and Alderson-Day, Ben (2022) 'Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices.', Schizophrenia Bulletin, 48 (5). pp. 1066-1074.

Abstract

Background and Hypothesis: Voice-hearing in clinical and nonclinical groups has previously been compared using standardized assessments of psychotic experiences. Findings from several studies suggest that nonclinical voice-hearing is distinguished by reduced distress and increased control. However, symptom-rating scales developed for clinical populations may be limited in their ability to elucidate subtle aspects of nonclinical voices. Moreover, such experiences often occur within specific contexts and belief systems, such as spiritualism. We investigated similarities and differences in the phenomenology of clinical voice-hearing and nonclinical voice-hearer (NCVH). Study Design: We conducted a comparative interdisciplinary study which administered a semi-structured interview to NCVH individuals (N = 26) and psychosis patients (N = 40). The nonclinical group was recruited from spiritualist communities. We used content analysis and inductive thematic analysis to create a coding frame which was used across both spiritual and patient groups to compare phenomenological features of voice-hearing. Study Results: The findings were consistent with previous results regarding distress and control. Additionally, in the NCVH group, multiple modalities were often integrated into 1 entity, and there were high levels of associated visual imagery, and subtle differences in the location of voices relating to perceptual boundaries. Most NCVHs reported voices before encountering spiritualism, suggesting that their onset was not solely due to deliberate practice. Conclusions: Nonclinical spiritual voice-hearing has important similarities and differences to voices in psychosis. Future research should aim to understand how spiritual voice-hearers cultivate and control voice-hearing after its onset, which may inform interventions for people with psychosis with distressing voices.

Item Type:Article
Full text:Publisher-imposed embargo
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Status:Peer-reviewed
Publisher Web site:https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbac054
Publisher statement:© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Date accepted:12 May 2022
Date deposited:16 May 2022
Date of first online publication:23 June 2022
Date first made open access:21 July 2022

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