Sociocultural Factors in Hallucinations

Abstract

Sociocultural factors affect both the definition and the sense organs involved in hallucinations. It is suggested that, in addition to the importance of audition in communication on the human level, other sociocultural factors may affect the choice of sense organs in the expression of hallucinatory experience. As compared with non-Western societies, Western attitudes consider hallucinations more shameful and frightening (symptoms of mental illness) and this tend to be more liable to concealment and chronicity. It is proposed that the psychoanalytical approached to the interpretation of dreams or behavioural techniques could be used to overcome the concomitants of Western attitudes toward hallucinations. As hallucinations are considered to be the result of the interaction of the sense organs with the physical environment (i.e., misperception) they appear to reflect the biological rather than the social adaptation of the organism. It is thus not surpris ing that sociocultural factors in hallucinations have not been given as much attention as other schizophrenic symptoms such as delusions where social evaluation and interpersonal relationship seem to be clearly implicated (Murphy, 1967; Weinstein, 1962). The present paper aims at delineating the role of sociocultural factors in the definition and the frequency of different kinds of hallucinations. The implications of cultural variations in attitudes toward hallucinations for the development and treatment of hallucinatory experiences will also be discussed.