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/sci/ - Science & Math

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5778428 No.5778428 [Reply] [Original]

hey /sci/,

I know we bash on psychology a lot but I'm hoping one of you secret psychologist out there can help me answer a question. How come the majority of auditory hallucinations are negative? Why don't the voices in peoples heads ever tell them how great a person they are, or motivate them to help others, rather than killing them?

>> No.5778441

>>5778428
Non conscious thought is derived from the subconscious, which is more aware of things than the conscious mind is, at times. I like to view the subconscious as more integrated with the rest of the world, taking more of an out of body perspective. If it notices you're doing something, or if you're stuck in a particular state of reasoning, it lets you know about it via judgment and commentary. Of course you also look at it as angels, demons, extradimensional beings, etc, but hey.

The whole murder someone thing has to do with the conscious absorption that human life is disposable as well as a myriad of other psycholigcal building blocks, sometimes psychological projection can be involved and the me becomes her or him

>> No.5778447

>>5778428
dedication is what the sane call positive auditory hallucinations
-zyzz

>> No.5778449

Interesting question. Bumping.

>> No.5778468

>>5778441

I understand what you are trying to say but this makes the assumption that everyone is subconsciously pessimistic. What about the optimistic people? Does this mean that people who truly believe that there is good in the world will never develop schizophrenia?

>> No.5778470

>>5778428
>How come the majority of auditory hallucinations are negative?
Are you sure this is true? Maybe negative hallucinations are just what gets talked about because it's a problem.

I don't know anything about this stuff, but looking for more information quickly finds examples of positive hallucinations:
>Joan of Arc claimed to hear the voices of Saints who were the force that guided her and was resolved to obey these messages as she believed they were sent directly from God. She first began hearing voices when she was thirteen and soon after had visions of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret.

>> No.5778472

>>5778428
Because the auditory is out of their respective comfort zones. Some feel threatened by amount of people participating. Some feel bad smell from his fellow participant. Some feel stressed by non-comfortable chairs they are sitting in.

It happens because of "What you see is what you get".

>> No.5778485

>>5778470
Although I guess Joan of Arc's voices were also telling her to kill people, so not much different from the stereotype after all.

Complete speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if lots of people who think they hear the "voice of God" are having hallucinations with positive messages. They wouldn't be as likely to seek help because they think the voices are real and a good thing.

>> No.5778486

>>5778470
I'm not sure. Even in psychology books, the only things they talk about were the negative ones. The ones about Joan of Arc are delusions of grandeur. I'm asking specifically why voices in your head don't say things like, "You're doing a great job. Keep it up!" or even, "She's a pretty looking girl. You should go talk to her!"

>>5778472
I don't really know what you are trying to say

>> No.5778492

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17994500

BACKGROUND:
Modern psychiatry emphasises the negative aspects of hearing voices. However, experience shows that some patients find these voices positive or useful.

AIM:
To describe the life-time prevalence of hearing voices in a group of patients and the course of this phenomenon and to find out whether these patients find the hearing of voices positive and/or useful.

METHOD:
The study population consisted of patients and former patients of the Voices Outpatient Department of the Groningen University Medical Centre. For this study the Positive and Useful Voices Inquiry, a self-report questionnaire was developed.

RESULTS:
The life-time prevalence of positive voices was 52%, whereas the life-time prevalence of useful voices was 40%. In the majority of patients the number of positive voices decreased and the number of useful remained the same. Positive voices provided protection, reassurance or companionship. Useful voices gave advice, assist with daily activities or decision-making. Thirty two percent of the patients wished to continue hearing positive voices, 40% wished to continue hearing useful voices. These wishes were correlated to patients feeling that they have control over these voices.

CONCLUSION:
The prevalence of positive and useful voices is quite considerable and is therefore therapeutically relevant. A substantial proportion of the patients wishes to continue hearing these types of voices.

>> No.5778498

>>5778468
Going back into the myriad of psychological building blocks, one has to take into account parental and childhood interactions. It's been studied that children, I believe up to the age of around 10, exude alpha brainwaves, meaning everything they absorb is better remembered and takes a more direct route into the subconscious. If a child is constantly met with negativity via the parents and/or peers, it becomes absorbed within the child's reasoning. Of course, there is a way to reverse/alter/transmute these effects, via meditation, affirmations, etc. (which contribute to 'rewiring' the subconscious mind) idk where the assumption comment is coming from, psychological projection maybe something you should look into.

>> No.5778503

>>5778498
A more colloquial description of projection would be "I am always speaks to I am." Filtration is possible, objective reasoning as well, though still fairly easy to catch if one has the mind to do so. A better way to say, if one pays enough attention.

>> No.5778504

>>5778492
how do you read the document? I can't find the button and the read full text isn't a link to the research

>> No.5778511

>>5778504
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0924-9338(09)71423-3
seems to be a working link but I don't have access to it. But this was just the first thing I found.

>> No.5778513

>>5778428
Well, one reason; reporting bias.
When one hears voices that are negative, they will complain, they will ask for help, ask for treatment.
If the voices are positive, they do not complain or seek treatment. And other people are not aware that they even hear them.

>> No.5778517

>>5778498
>>5778503

yeah ok, i know what projection is. everything you said still doesn't answer the question of: if you were raised in a positive surrounding, even if your family had a history or schizophrenia, would your auditory hallucinations still be negative.

>> No.5778518

>>5778517
No. Unless it was placed within the child's reasoning and subconscious acceptance/belief system otherwise.

>> No.5778523

>>5778518
Schizophrenia is also more neurological than it is psychological. Would be dependent of the information stored within the left hemisphere and the neural interactions stemming from such.

>> No.5778525

>>5778518

Then to that degree, someone who develops schizophrenia and hears positive auditory hallucinations, is actually creating a defense mechanism, the same way people with dissociative identity disorder create different personalities to cope with certain situations?

>> No.5778526

>>5778511

I still can't find a way to read the full article. Thanks for the effort but I would still like to learn more about this and see what /sci/ has to say about this topic

>> No.5778539

>>5778523
I understand this. according to my book, people with schizophrenia are experiencing more activity in Broca's area (speech) and not Wernicke's area (language). This was what initially had me wondering about why people always hear negative thoughts. Does this mean they can train themselves to hear positive ones too?

>> No.5778538

>>5778525
Defence mechanism?

>the same way people with dissociative identity disorder create different personalities
They do not create them. It is beyond their control.

>> No.5778541

>>5778538
Subconsciously they create them, I mean

>> No.5778550

>>5778525
Mmmm, yes and no. No because of the subjectivity attached, yes because of willful intention. If you'd like to get a bit more physiological/physics related with it, the brain has an electromagnetic field, the heart is actually comprised of 65% neural cells with an emf ~100x more powerful. Possible to alter one's electromagnetism as to have neurons and neurological functioning fire and act in different mannerisms, making certain pathways easier to traverse (though of course diet and chemical secretion and interactions have to be taken into account as well)

>> No.5778555

>>5778539
Possible methods of alterations already explained (Could also physics-y with that, every word carries its own sine wave, can consider our brains as receivers of sorts, altering the frequency of reception in pertinence to the type of information it's able to receive). Other post might explain the other portion.

>> No.5778566

>>5778485

Joan of Ark's hallucinations were likely the result of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. I get the feeling OP was mostly talking about psychiatric disorders such as Schizophrenia, which are heavily prevalent with persecutory hallucinations.

>> No.5778578

>>5778555
i know what you're referring too. Experiments have shown that if you direct magnetic pulses to certain parts of the brain, you can shut them off because you're disrupting the electrical pulses in the nuerons (I think). but that doesn't really explain why people are hearing voices telling them that they're ugly or they need to burn the world to ashes

>> No.5778582

>>5778578
to*.

>>5778566
That is correct. I was

>> No.5778633

In the modern age, hallucinations are without exception considered bad, a malfunction of the mind. Earlier it could have been considered a revelation from god or otherwise of spiritual significance. Now it's just not feasible to construe such imaginings in a positive context: If you see or hear something that no one else does you are malfunctioning, not inspired.

Hallucinations are I believe fairly common, but you more often hear of the ones that tell people to kill their family or burn down their house. In counterpoint, I heard of a guy whose voices told him "go make a cup of coffee".

It doesn't need to be bad. In a very real sense you hallucinate every night. Are all your dreams bad?

I also don't believe Jean d'Arc killed anyone. She carried a banner into battle. Or so wikipedia told me.

>> No.5778652

>>5778578
People seek to attribute their emotions to causative factors. There's an experiment to that effect involving administering adrenaline to subjects. Some were instructed in the effects of the adrenaline, others were not. As agitated actors are sent into the room the latter group construe the person as the cause of their own agitation whereas the ones knowing of the adrenaline effects did not need to make this attribution.

>> No.5778662

>>5778652
Point being if you're feeling down for whatever reason this could reflect on the content of your thoughts.