Believing Is Seeing: Organic and Psychological Reasons for Hallucinations and Other Anomalous Psychiatric Symptoms

Journal/Book: Medscape Mental Health. 1996; 1:

Abstract: The probability of hallucinating rises with any of several possible functional shifts within the brain's awareness system. Anything that prompts a move from word-based thinking to imagistic or pictorial thinking predisposes a person to hallucinating. Anything that biases the brain's representational system toward memory images at the expense of sensory information can also predispose to hallucinating. Stress-induced arousal from sources such as life-threatening accidents or natural disasters, sustained military operations, terrorist attacks, or recent bereavement has been reported to trigger hallucinations. Prolonged meditation, drug use, sensory bombardment to the point of physical and emotional exhaustion, various kinds of self-denial, and even self-mutilation are all routes that seekers of "visions" have pursued in the quest for enlightenment. In addition, spontaneous eruptions in the brain can trigger hallucinations, such as the aura preceding an epileptic attack or a migraine headache. Faced with a probable instance of hallucination, the clinician should try to eliminate the various organic and psychopathologic causes for such experiences. However, if none should emerge, it is well to remember that, sometimes, no apparent explanation will be found when an occasional hallucination is experienced by a normal (healthy) person. The hallucination does not necessarily predict future recurrences of the same or an incipient illness; nor does it imply that a naturalistic explanation could not be found if additional information were available. [Medscape Mental Health 1(11), 1996. © 1996 Medscape, Inc.]

Keyword(s): Hallucination Delusion Dementia Stress Anomalistic psychology

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