Author Simon McCarthy-Jones teaches psychology and neuropsychology at Trinity College, Dublin; he is a member of the Hearing Voices Movement. In this book for general readers, students, and helping professionals, he brings in perspectives from the Hearing Voices Movement’s emphasis on trauma-based explanations and on listening to people’s experiences, seeking to bring together biology-led and trauma-led perspectives. Writing in plain language, with a sense of humor and references to popular culture, he gives much information on insights from neuroscience, genetics, and biochemistry; however, he also considers the history and biases of the medical and psychiatry establishment, as well as factors such as poverty, discrimination, and income inequality. There is special emphasis on the emerging links between hearing voices, child abuse, PTSD, and other trauma. Color and black and white images of the brain are included. The book’s audience includes undergraduates and general readers as well as clinicians and researchers. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
'What's wrong with you?' People who hear voices will often hear this alienating question, and are treated ineffectively with anti-psychotic drugs. Recounting the stories of voice-hearers, this book suggests that we should instead ask 'What happened to you , and offers an alternative approach to auditory hallucinations.
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.
