What "voice-hearers" change to the listening of hallucinations? II. Researches on voice hearing

Objectives. - Several studies have shown the high prevalence of experiences of acoustic-verbal hallucinations (so-called "voices") in non-psychiatric individuals. From the 1980s was constituted an international movement - the "voice hearers" - who relativize but also fertilize the clinical knowledge on the listening of hallucinations. This paper proposes to question some of aspects of the debate on "voice hearers" when integrating it within the broader contemporary models attempting to account for "psychotic-like experiences" or "exceptional experiences". Materials. - A brief review of scientific literature on these experiences help to compare psychiatric, psychoanalytic and more specialized researches on "voice-hearing". We also compare classical clinical positions with new ones. Results. - It appears that "voice-hearers" introduce a reversal of some classical prejudices, in moving towards a treatment of psychotic-like experiences as if they were neurotic expressions. Paranormal and spiritual interpretations of voices are ubiquitous in many studies of voice hearing, and even are outstanding examples of salutogenic appraisals of psychotic-like experiences. The research on the type of appraisal along the axes of internal/external or personal/impersonal provides direct guidance on clinical intervention strategies. Conclusions. - No longer focusing on the "what" but rather on the "how" of hallucinations experiences helps to avoid some biases relative to the assessment of beliefs - especially unusual beliefs - in the clinical setting. As the figurehead of the broader movement of "recovery", the Hearing Voices Movement offers a competitive clinical practice, but failed to provide a true differential clinical practice starting from a neutral name referring to several psychopathological pathways that need to be distinguished. (c) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.