Voices in the Brain: The Cognitive Neuropsychiatry of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations: A Special Issue of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry

For millennia, human beings have reported hearing ‘voices’. These experiences have been a source of fascination, sometimes because they spoke of revelation, sometimes because they presaged madness and destruction. From Socrates to the Yorkshire Ripper the impact of voices upon human society has been considerable. But after all this time what can we really say about their causes, their meaning and their treatment? In this special issue of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Spence and David have edited a contemporary synthesis of what is known about voices (‘auditory verbal hallucinations’, AVH). Contributions are drawn from an internationally renowned panel of authors, most of whom contributed to a symposium held in Sheffield, England in September 2002 (‘Voices in the Brain: the cognitive neuropsychiatry of auditory verbal hallucinations’). Topics included in this special issue are: a contemporary voice hearer’s perspective on voices and their treatment (Cockshutt); a phenomenological-hermeneutic interpretation of the content of ‘voice speech’ (Bracken, Leudar and Thomas); a review of the evidence for cognitive interventions used to treat AVH in a group setting (Wykes); a structured literat