A Community of One: Social Cognition and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

Abstract

Vaughan Bell argues that because hallucinated voices are often experienced as distinct social identities we need to understand how changes in the social brain lead to these intense experiences.

Abstract

Auditory verbal hallucinations have attracted a great deal of scientific interest, but despite the fact that they are fundamentally a social experience—in essence, a form of hallucinated communication—current theories remain firmly rooted in an individualistic account and have largely avoided engagement with social cognition. Nevertheless, there is mounting evidence for the role of social cognitive and social neurocognitive processes in auditory verbal hallucinations, and, consequently, it is proposed that problems with the internalisation of social models may be key to the experience.