Culture and hallucinations : overview and future directions
Larøi, Frank (Université de Liège)
Luhrmann, Tanya Marie (Stanford University. Department of Anthropology)
Bell, Vaughan (King's College London. Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience)
Christian, William A. (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)
Deshpande, Smita (Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Services)
Fernyhough, Charles (Durham University. Department of Psychology)
Jenkins, Janis (University of California San Diego. Department of Anthropology)
Woods, Angela (Durham University. Centre for Medical Humanities)

Date:	2014
Abstract:	A number of studies have explored hallucinations as complex experiences involving interactions between psychological, biological, and environmental factors and mechanisms. Nevertheless, relatively little attention has focused on the role of culture in shaping hallucinations. This article reviews the published research, drawing on the expertise of both anthropologists and psychologists. We argue that the extant body of work suggests that culture does indeed have a significant impact on the experience, understanding, and labeling of hallucinations and that there may be important theoretical and clinical consequences of that observation. We find that culture can affect what is identified as a hallucination, that there are different patterns of hallucination among the clinical and nonclinical populations, that hallucinations are often culturally meaningful, that hallucinations occur at different rates in different settings; that culture affects the meaning and characteristics of hallucinations associated with psychosis, and that the cultural variations of psychotic hallucinations may have implications for the clinical outcome of those who struggle with psychosis. We conclude that a clinician should never assume that the mere report of what seems to be a hallucination is necessarily a symptom of pathology and that the patient's cultural background needs to be taken into account when assessing and treating hallucinations.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Hallucination ; Culture ; Ethnography ; Psychosis ; Religion
Published in:	Schizophrenia bulletin, Vol. 40 (june 2014) , p. S213-S220, ISSN 1745-1701

DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbu012
PMID: 24936082

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