Voice-Hearing and Personification: Characterizing Social Qualities of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Early Psychosis
Schizophrenia Bulletin June 19, 2020 Ben Alderson‐day, Angela Woods, Peter Moseley et al. 59 citations
Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) often become personified, but little is known about how this happens. In interviews with 40 early psychosis service users, 40% reported complex personification of their voices. Personified voices were more likely to be experienced as conversational and companionable, but not as commanding or trauma-related. The duration of voice-hearing or age at onset did not predict personification. The findings suggest that personification is linked to the social affordances of voices—their capacity for conversation and companionship—rather than their threatening or commanding qualities.