Berättelser om inre röster : Ett fenomenologiskt och kommunikativt perspektiv

Sammanfattning: The phenomenon of hearing voices is examined in a communicative way and with a phenomenological perspective. Data consist of talks in focus groups and of written autobiographical texts.(I) The aim of the first article, “More real than the reality”- A study of voice hearing, is to describe and analyse how participants in focus groups account for and understand their voice hearing experiences. Voice hearing can be understood as a continuum of various experiences, including thoughts about the self and the inner and the outer world. Voice hearing can be experienced as ‘more real than the reality’.(II) The aim of the second article, Från rösthörarnas värld - en analys av självbiografiska brev om hörselhallucinationer [From the world of the voice hearers - en analysis of personal letters on auditory hallucinations], is to analyse how people can describe and interpret inner voices in texts. The terms monologue, dialogue, polyphony and cacophony characterise variations of voice hearing. (III) The aim of the third article, ‘Schizophrenic or occult harassed?’ A narrative study of an autobiographical text about auditory and visual hallucinations, is to show that important insight into voice hearing can be gained when one describes and analyses how a subject writes. The analysis showed how writing was a way of adapting to inner voices and to the psychiatric diagnosis the author had received.(IV) The aim of the fourth article, Leva med inre röster. Utforskande av röstupplevelsers mening [Living with inner voices. A quest for the meaning of voice experiences], is to describe and analyse some methods and attitudes that the subjects use in order to cope with inner voices. It was important that the participants accepted their voices as a part of life. The participants also must cope with being stigmatised.