help me understand something

Post Reply New Topic

Unless the staff of the institution think your neighbours is nutso.

I'm not a psychiatrist (I have a real medical degree! ) but from my understanding, a hallucination is a perception for which an external stimulus that would give rise to a similar perception in another observer does not exist.

So when a person claims to be in communication with a third party but no external stimulus can be observed, we believe that person to be hallucinating. Hallucinations are not, in and of themselves, grounds for any particular action, but might be indicators of a disease or disorder requiring therapy.

When the voices in your head tell you to, "stop goofing off and get back to the project," or, "yes, you really do want that chocolate bar," there really is no grounds for interference. When the voices in your head tell you set fire to the house, then there most certainly is.

"Internal dialogue". Describing it as voice in your head just makes to externalize the thought process and gives rise to such stupidity as religion.

For my own part, that is certainly the case. But clinically, I would never draw that conclusion with a patient absent more investigation. I have certainly had direct, clinical contact with patients who very clearly distinguish their hallucinations from internal dialogue, from memory, or from conjured images (i.e. daydreams).

If the appropriate neurons fire in the appropriate fashion, you will have a real perception, and you will remember it as real. The fact that something else caused those neurons to fire does not alter the reality of the perception.