title: Hearing the Unheard: An Interdisciplinary, Mixed Methodology Study of Women's Experiences of Hearing Voices (Auditory Verbal Hallucinations).
abstract: This paper explores the experiences of women who "hear voices" (auditory verbal hallucinations). We begin by examining historical understandings of women hearing voices, showing these have been driven by androcentric theories of how women's bodies functioned leading to women being viewed as requiring their voices be interpreted by men. We show the twentieth century was associated with recognition that the mental violation of women's minds (represented by some voice-hearing) was often a consequence of the physical violation of women's bodies. We next report the results of a qualitative study into voice-hearing women's experiences (n = 8). This found similarities between women's relationships with their voices and their relationships with others and the wider social context. Finally, we present results from a quantitative study comparing voice-hearing in women (n = 65) and men (n = 132) in a psychiatric setting. Women were more likely than men to have certain forms of voice-hearing (voices conversing) and to have antecedent events of trauma, physical illness, and relationship problems. Voices identified as female may have more positive affect than male voices. We conclude that women voice-hearers have and continue to face specific challenges necessitating research and activism, and hope this paper will act as a stimulus to such work.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Department of Cognitive Science, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McCarthy-Jones
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of East London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castro Romero
authors.affiliation: Independent Scholar , Dublin , Ireland.
authors.forename: Roseline
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McCarthy-Jones
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of East London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Jacqui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dillon
authors.affiliation: Department of English, Utah State University , Logan, UT , USA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cooper-Rompato
authors.affiliation: Hill Centre for Women, McLean Hospital , Boston, MA , USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kieran
authors.affiliation: Hill Centre for Women, McLean Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Milissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaufman
authors.affiliation: Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmith's College , London , UK.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blackman
keywords: abuse; gender; hallucinations; psychosis; schizophrenia; traumatology; women; women’s health