Abstract
Drawing upon core phenomenological contributions of the last decades, the present paper provides an integrated description of the development of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia. Specifically, these contributions are (i) the transitional sequences of development of psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia as envisioned by Klosterkötter and rooted in the basic symptoms approach, (ii) Conrad’s Gestalt-analysis of developing psychosis, and (iii) Sass and Parnas’ self-disturbance approach. Klosterkötter’s contribution provides a general descriptive psychopathological approach to the transitional sequence of the development of auditory hallucinations. The key concepts in Conrad’s proposal (such as trema, apophany, anastrophy, Reflexionskrampf [hyperreflexivity] and transparence) are discussed, as their role is central as driving forces of the process from non-psychotic symptoms to overt hallucinations. Finally, Parnas and Sass link psychiatry to philosophy and psychology, and provide an in-depth and thorough description of these phenomena in their work on schizophrenia as a disorder of consciousness and self-experience (disturbed ipseity) with hyper-reflexivity and diminished self-affection as key aspects.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blankenburg, W. 1971. Der Verlust der natürlichen Selbstverständlichkeit: Ein Beitrag zur Psychopathologie symptomarmer Schizophrenien. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke Verlag.
Bleuer, E. 1952. Dementia Praecox or the group of schizophrenias.
Conrad, K. 1958. Die beginnende Schizophrenie. Versuch einer Gestaltanalyse des Wahns. Georg Thieme Verlag. Stuttgart, Germany.
Gross, G., G. Huber, J. Klosterkötter, and M. Linz. 1987. BSABS Bonner Skala für die Beurteilung von Basissymptomen. Manual, Kommentar, Dokumentationsbogen.. Berlin: Springer.
Gross, G., G. Huber, J. Klosterkötter, and M. Linz. 2008. BSABS - Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms: 1st english edition: Manual, commentary, references, index, documentation sheet (Berichte aus der Medizin). Aachen: Shaker Verlag.
Jaspers, K. 1913. Allgemeine Psychopathologie. Ein Leitfaden für Studierende, Ärzte und Psychologen. Berlin Springer Verlag. Translated from the German 7th edition by Hoenig J and Hamilton MW in 1959.
Klosterkötter, J. 1992. The meaning of basic symptoms for the development of schizophrenic psychoses. Neurology Psychiatry and Brain Research 1: 30–41.
Klosterkötter, J., M. Hellmich, E.M. Steinmeyer, and F. Schultze-Lutter. 2001. Diagnosing schizophrenia in the initial prodromal phase. Archives of General Psychiatry 58: 158–164.
Larøi, F., S. de Haan, S. Jones, and A. Raballo. 2010. Auditory verbal hallucinations: Dialoguing between the cognitive sciences and phenomenology. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9: 225–240.
McCarthy-Jones, S., J. Krueger, F. Larøi, M.R. Broome, and C. Fernyhough. 2013. Stop, look and listen: The need for philosophical phenomenological perspectives on auditory verbal hallucinations. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7: 127.
Møller, P., and R. Husby. 2000. The initial prodrome in schizophrenia: Searching for naturalistic core dimensions of experience and behavior. Schizophrenia Bulletin 26: 217–232.
Mundt, C. 2005. Anomalous self-experience: A plea for phenomenology. Psychopathology 38: 231–235.
Parnas, J., and P. Handest. 2003. Phenomenology of anomalous self-experience in early schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry 44: 121–134.
Parnas, J., and L.A. Sass. 2002. Self, solipsism, and schizophrenic delusions. Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology 8: 101–120.
Parnas, J., P. Møller, T. Kircher, J. Thalbitzer, L. Jansson, P. Handest, and D. Zahavi. 2005. EASE-scale (Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience). Psychopathology 38: 236–258.
Parnas, J., A. Raballo, P. Handest, L. Jansson, A. Vollmer-Larsen, and D. Saebye. 2011. Self-experience in the early phases of schizophrenia: 5-year follow-up of the Copenhagen Prodromal Study. World Psychiatry 10: 200–204.
Parnas, J., L.A. Sass, and D. Zahavi. 2012. Rediscovering psychopathology: The epistemology and phenomenology of the psychiatric object. Schizophrenia Bulletin 39: 270–277.
Raballo, A., and F. Larøi. 2011. Murmurs of thought: Phenomenology of hallucinatory consciousness in impending psychosis. Psychosis 3: 163–166.
Sass, L. A. 1992. Madness and Modernism: Insanity in light of modern art, literature, and thought, New York, Basic Books.
Sass, L.A., and J. Parnas. 2003. Schizophrenia, consciousness, and self. Schizophrenia Bulletin 29: 427–444.
Sass, L., J. Parnas, and D. Zahavi. 2011. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 1: 1–23.
Schultze-Lutter, F. 2009. Subjective symptoms of schizophrenia in research and the clinic: The basic symptom concept. Schizophrenia Bulletin 35: 5–8.
Schultze-Lutter, F., J. Addington, S. Ruhrmann, and J. Klosterkötter. 2007. The Schizophrenia Proneness Instrument – Adult version (SPI-A). Rome: Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l.
Schultze-Lutter, F., S. Ruhrmann, J. Berning, W. Maier, and J. Klosterkötter. 2010. Basic symptoms and ultrahigh risk criteria: Symptom development in the initial prodromal state. Schizophrenia Bulletin 36: 182191.
Stanghellini, G., and M. Ballerini. 2004. Autism: Disembodied existence. Philosophy, Psychiatry& Psychology 11: 259–268.
Wiggins, O.P., and M.A. Schwartz. 2007. Schizophrenia: a phenomenological-anthropological approach. In International perspectives in philosophy and psychiatry, Reconceiving schizophrenia, ed. M.C. Chung, K.W.M. Fulford, and G. Graham, 113–127. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Handest, P., Klimpke, C., Raballo, A. et al. From Thoughts to Voices: Understanding the Development of Auditory Hallucinations in Schizophrenia. Rev.Phil.Psych. 7, 595–610 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-015-0286-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-015-0286-8