Hallucinatory voices are shaped by culture, US people tend to have more criticism/harsh voices, while in Africa or India they are more playful/benign

[Jabberwocky]

Stanford researcher: Hallucinatory ‘voices’ shaped by local culture

Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical...

news.stanford.edu

"Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical implications for how to treat people with schizophrenia, she suggests.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Email

BY CLIFTON B. PARKER

Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology, studies how culture affects the experiences of people who experience auditory hallucinations, specifically in India, Ghana and the United States. (Image credit: Steve Fyffe)
People suffering from schizophrenia may hear “voices” – auditory hallucinations – differently depending on their cultural context, according to new Stanford research.
In the United States, the voices are harsher, and in Africa and India, more benign, said Tanya Luhrmann, a Stanford professor of anthropology and first author of the article in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
The experience of hearing voices is complex and varies from person to person, according to Luhrmann. The new research suggests that the voice-hearing experiences are influenced by one’s particular social and cultural environment – and this may have consequences for treatment.
In an interview, Luhrmann said that American clinicians “sometimes treat the voices heard by people with psychosis as if they are the uninteresting neurological byproducts of disease which should be ignored. Our work found that people with serious psychotic disorder in different cultures have different voice-hearing experiences. That suggests that the way people pay attention to their voices alters what they hear their voices say. That may have clinical implications.”

 

[RUC4]

Stanford researcher: Hallucinatory ‘voices’ shaped by local culture

Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical...

news.stanford.edu

"Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann found that voice-hearing experiences of people with serious psychotic disorders are shaped by local culture – in the United States, the voices are harsh and threatening; in Africa and India, they are more benign and playful. This may have clinical implications for how to treat people with schizophrenia, she suggests.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Email

BY CLIFTON B. PARKER

Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology, studies how culture affects the experiences of people who experience auditory hallucinations, specifically in India, Ghana and the United States. (Image credit: Steve Fyffe)
People suffering from schizophrenia may hear “voices” – auditory hallucinations – differently depending on their cultural context, according to new Stanford research.
In the United States, the voices are harsher, and in Africa and India, more benign, said Tanya Luhrmann, a Stanford professor of anthropology and first author of the article in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
The experience of hearing voices is complex and varies from person to person, according to Luhrmann. The new research suggests that the voice-hearing experiences are influenced by one’s particular social and cultural environment – and this may have consequences for treatment.
In an interview, Luhrmann said that American clinicians “sometimes treat the voices heard by people with psychosis as if they are the uninteresting neurological byproducts of disease which should be ignored. Our work found that people with serious psychotic disorder in different cultures have different voice-hearing experiences. That suggests that the way people pay attention to their voices alters what they hear their voices say. That may have clinical implications.”

Probably because American people are so negative and critical, while Africans are positive and encouraging. Americans are cynical. Americans are more anxious. Even though we’re more advanced in certain ways, other countries are more advanced in other ways. This is one.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Probably because American people are so negative and critical, while Africans are positive and encouraging. Americans are cynical. Americans are more anxious. Even though we’re more advanced in certain ways, other countries are more advanced in other ways. This is one.

Completely agree. If you rank the "happiest" countries, the poorest nations often significantly outrank the richest on happiness and life satisfaction.

The typical human brain doesn't need much to be happy of appreciate life.

I'm not going to say an overly broad statement like "technology is bad", but some aspects of it are certainly making people more depressed, which is well documented at this point.

I think it's more how society uses certain technology, moreso than technology itself.

Sometimes I feel like moving into a shed in the middle of nowhere, I hate society sometimes. Ted Kaczynski was onto something, maybe.

 

[RUC4]

Sometimes I feel like moving into a shed in the middle of nowhere, I hate society sometimes. Ted Kaczynski was onto something, maybe.

On to something how? He had a lot of ideas outside of bombing. I’m not sure what you mean by that.

 

[Jabberwocky]

On to something how? He had a lot of ideas outside of bombing. I’m not sure what you mean by that.

Mostly joking about Kaczynski. But I do share some of his sentiments about how technology might "destroy civilization", I mean just look at what we're doing, 70% of the animal species on earth have gone extinct since 1970. We are literally and actively in the 6th mass extinction event on earth, due purely from humans and our actions.

But he was also really crazy and hurt people. I don't idolize him or anything.

 

[RUC4]

Mostly joking about Kaczynski. But I do share some of his sentiments about how technology might "destroy civilization", I mean just look at what we're doing, 70% of the animal species on earth have gone extinct since 1970. We are literally and actively in the 6th mass extinction event on earth, due purely from humans and our actions.

But he was also really crazy and hurt people. I don't idolize him or anything.

I’m glad to hear you don’t idolize him. I never thought you did. I just didn’t want people misunderstanding you.