Abstract
Visual hallucinations have played an important role in religion, culture, and all concepts of mental disease. A brief review of these phenomena in healthy individuals as well as in clinical medicine is provided. We analyse the pathomechanisms involved in the development of visual hallucinatory experiences and argue that no single model can serve to explain all the phenomena encountered in the field of visual hallucinations. We question the validity of the current distinction between hallucination and illusion, and delineate conditions which are only appreciable psychologically, e.g. the ‘imaginary playmates’ of childhood and visual hallucinations in the face of a severe grief reaction. At least three putative mechanisms for the genesis of visual hallucinations can be described in biological terminology: irritative phenomena, release phenomena, and processing disturbances within the visual pathways.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asaad G, Shapiro B. Hallucinations: theoretical and clinical overview. Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143: 1088–97.
Bracha HS, Cabrera SJ, Karson CN, Bigelow LB. Lateralisation of visual hallucinations in schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry 1985; 20: 1132–6.
Caplan LR. ‘Top of the basilar’ syndrome. Neurology 1980; 30: 72–9.
Cogan DG. Visual hallucinations as release phenomena. Graefe's Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 1973; 188: 139–50.
Cohn R. Phantom vision. Arch Neurol 1971; 25: 468–71.
Critchley M: Types of visual perseveration. ‘Paliopsia’ and ‘Illusory visual spread’. Brain 1951; 74: 267–99.
Damas-Mora J, Skelton-Robinson M, Jenner FA. The Charles Bonnet syndrome in perspective. Psychol Med 1982; 12: 251–61.
Fischman LG. Dreams, hallucinogenic drug states, and schizophrenia: a psychological and biological comparison. Schiz Bull 1983; 9: 73–94.
Fitzgerald RG. Visual phenomenology in recently blind adults. Am J Psychiatry 1971; 127: 1533–9.
Fitzgerald BA, Wells CE. Hallucinations as a conversion reaction. Dis Nerv Syst 1977; 38: 381–3.
Heron W. The pathology of boredom. Sci Am 1957; 196: 52–6.
Horowitz MJ. The imagery of visual hallucinations. J Nerv Ment Dis 1964; 138: 513–23.
Kölmel HW. Visuelle Halluzinationen im hemianopen Feld bei homonymer Hemianopsie. Springer Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg 1984.
Lukianowicz N: Autoscopic phenomena. Arch Neurol Psych 1958; 80: 199–220.
Lukianowicz N. ‘Body image’ disturbances in psychiatric disorders. Br J Psychiatry 1967; 113: 31–47.
Maurizi CP. The anatomy and chemistry of hallucinations and a rational surgical approach to the treatment of some schizophrenic syndromes. Med Hypotheses 1985; 17: 227–9.
Penfield W, Perrot P. The brain's record of auditory and visual experience. Brain 1963; 86: 595–696.
Phillips RW. Religious revelations and bovine ketosis (A nonsacred cow). Perspect Biol Med 1978; 21: 398–405.
Sacks O. The man who mistook his wife for his hat and other clinical tales. New York Summit Books, 1985.
Shader RI (ed.). Psychiatric Complications of Medical Drugs. Raven Press: New York, 1972.
Stevenson I. Do we need a new word to supplement ‘hallucinations’? Am J Psychiatry 1983; 140: 1609–1611.
Weinberger LM, Grant FC. Visual hallucinations and their neurooptical correlates. Arch Ophthalmol 1940; 23: 166–99.
West LJ. A clinical and theoretical overview of hallucinatory phenomena. In: Siegel RK, West LJ, eds. Hallucinations: Behavior, experience, and theory. John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1975.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weller, M., Wiedemann, P. Visual hallucinations. Int Ophthalmol 13, 193–199 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02028209
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02028209