An Epistemological Approach: History of Concepts and Ideas About Hallucinations in Classical Psychiatry

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Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to describe how our understanding of ­hallucinations has evolved over time. Descriptions of hallucinatory phenomena have figured in documents since the beginning of recorded history. Before being considered as a neurological disorder, hallucinations were thought to be manifestations of demons or angels. Many of the hypothesis used to understand hallucinatory phenomena emerged after the discovery of brain areas involved in language production and comprehension. Understanding has significantly developed since the 1990s with neuroimaging techniques.

Keywords

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Schizophrenia Patient Superior Temporal Gyrus Auditory Hallucination Cognitive Remediation 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Abbreviations

fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

PET

Positron emission tomography

rTMS

Repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation

SPECT

Single photon emission computed tomography

SPET

Single photon emission tomography

TMS

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Brent Strickland and Evelyn Rosset for their comments on a preliminary version of the manuscript, and Maxime Mangold for the design of the time-line plot.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, CNRS, UMR 5229Bron cedexFrance
  2. 2.Centre de Réhabilitation, Centre Hospitalier Le VinatierLyonFrance
  3. 3.Université Lumière Lyon 2 (Université de Lyon)LyonFrance
  4. 4.Service Universitaire de Réhabilitation, Centre Hospitalier Le VinatierLyonFrance
  5. 5.Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (Université de Lyon)LyonFrance

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