Yes, some people are not afraid of their invasion of consciousness. Do they need help?
“It never happens to me lonely. When I am sad or I need advice, what to do, I am not looking for a company-because I can have a conversation inside myself, ”says the 32-year-old Ranit, a resident of the Indian city of Chennai, who from time to time clearly hears voice. His calm story is completely different from our ideas about hallucinations. We are used to thinking that these are frightening phantoms that require, threaten, pushing wild acts, drive crazy. But if they can be harmless and even inspiring, does this mean that our views need a revision?
Anthropologists of the University of Stanford (USA) became interested in this issue*. They asked patients with psychiatric clinics of India, Ghana and California to tell about their auditory hallucinations. It turned out that their perception depends on the culture in which the person was brought up. For example, patients with schizophrenia from India and Africa have much more often described their hallucinations as inspirational, kind and even “playful”. Some believed that at such moments they were talking with God or the spirits of their ancestors. Anthropologist Valentina Kharitonova explains this: “The culture in which the
inhabitants of these countries are brought up implies the constant presence of otherworldly forces in human life. And therefore it is natural for them to see, hear, feel them next to them at any moment. And the sound of extraneous voices in its mind is perceived as the norm;The environment of a person also applies to this. This does not mean that hallucinations in such communities do not pay attention at all. But the decision on whether help is needed is made more often by doctors, but sorcerers or shamans. They make a “diagnosis” and decide what to do “.
The study of Stanford anthropologists gives those who hear voices to learn how to control their condition themselves, the head of the program Tanya Luhrmann is sure: “Those who perceive the voice not as an obsession, but as an interlocutor equal to themselves, as a rule, in general, bettermanages to manage your condition “. In her opinion, this approach could become an addition to drug therapy. “But only in chronic disorders,” adds psychiatrist Pavel Rumyantsev. – In these cases, adaptation to its state just begins with the adoption of its hallucinations. To adapt to life in which there are voices, you need to interact with them, and not just medicines and tolerance of others. For example, my colleague learned to enter into a dialogue with them, I could even ask not to disturb her during work. “. So it is possible and such an attitude towards this phenomenon.