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An investigation of psychological factors involved in the predisposition to auditory hallucinations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

P. D. Slade
P. D. Slade*
Affiliation:
Royal Free Hospital Medical School, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr P. D. Slade, Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital Medical School, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG.
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Synopsis

Previous research by the author (Slade, 1972, 1973) and others has suggested that psychological stress plays an important role in triggering off the experience of auditory hallucinations. Clearly, however, predispositional factors are involved as well. The present study is an attempt to investigate some of the psychological factors which may predispose the individual to such experiences. A battery of tests involving cognitive, personality and mental imagery variables and the verbal transformation effect was administered to two small groups of psychotic patients differing only in respect of a history of auditory hallucinations and a normal control group. The main conclusion was that the results lend direct support to the proposition of Mintz & Alpert (1972) that a combination of vivid mental imagery and poor reality-testing in the auditory modality provides the basic predisposition for the experience of auditory hallucinations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , February 1976 , pp. 123 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

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