Cargando…

Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background

Prior to the seventeenth century, the experiences we now name hallucinations were valued within a cultural context, they could bring meaning to the subject or the world. From mid-seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, they acquire a medical quality in mental and organic illnesses. However, the term wa...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Telles-Correia, Diogo, Moreira, Ana Lúcia, Gonçalves, João S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4515540/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26283978
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00991
_version_ 1782382924821168128
author Telles-Correia, Diogo
Moreira, Ana Lúcia
Gonçalves, João S.
author_facet Telles-Correia, Diogo
Moreira, Ana Lúcia
Gonçalves, João S.
author_sort Telles-Correia, Diogo
collection PubMed
description Prior to the seventeenth century, the experiences we now name hallucinations were valued within a cultural context, they could bring meaning to the subject or the world. From mid-seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, they acquire a medical quality in mental and organic illnesses. However, the term was only fully integrated in psychiatry by Esquirol in the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries. By then, a controversy begins on whether hallucinations have a perceptual or intellectual origin. Esquirol favors the intellectual origin, describing them as an involuntary exercise of memory and imagination. By the twentieth century, some authors maintain that hallucinations are a form of delusion (Ey), while others describe them as a change in perception (Jaspers, Fish). More integrated perspectives like those proposed by Alonso Fernandez and Luque, highlights the heterogeneity of hallucinations and the multiplicity of their types and causes. The terms pseudohallucination, illusion, and hallucinosis are grafted into the concept of hallucination. Since its introduction the term pseudohallucination has been used with different meanings. The major characteristics that we found associated with pseudohallucinations were “lack of objectivity” and “presence of insight” (differing from hallucinations). Illusions are unanimously taken as distortions of real objects. Hallucinosis, first described in the context of alcohol consumption, is generally considered egodystonic, in which insight is preserved. These and other controversial aspects regarding the evolution of the term hallucination and all its derivative concepts are discussed in this paper.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4515540
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45155402015-08-17 Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background Telles-Correia, Diogo Moreira, Ana Lúcia Gonçalves, João S. Front Psychol Psychology Prior to the seventeenth century, the experiences we now name hallucinations were valued within a cultural context, they could bring meaning to the subject or the world. From mid-seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, they acquire a medical quality in mental and organic illnesses. However, the term was only fully integrated in psychiatry by Esquirol in the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries. By then, a controversy begins on whether hallucinations have a perceptual or intellectual origin. Esquirol favors the intellectual origin, describing them as an involuntary exercise of memory and imagination. By the twentieth century, some authors maintain that hallucinations are a form of delusion (Ey), while others describe them as a change in perception (Jaspers, Fish). More integrated perspectives like those proposed by Alonso Fernandez and Luque, highlights the heterogeneity of hallucinations and the multiplicity of their types and causes. The terms pseudohallucination, illusion, and hallucinosis are grafted into the concept of hallucination. Since its introduction the term pseudohallucination has been used with different meanings. The major characteristics that we found associated with pseudohallucinations were “lack of objectivity” and “presence of insight” (differing from hallucinations). Illusions are unanimously taken as distortions of real objects. Hallucinosis, first described in the context of alcohol consumption, is generally considered egodystonic, in which insight is preserved. These and other controversial aspects regarding the evolution of the term hallucination and all its derivative concepts are discussed in this paper. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4515540/ /pubmed/26283978 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00991 Text en Copyright © 2015 Telles-Correia, Moreira and Gonçalves. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Telles-Correia, Diogo
Moreira, Ana Lúcia
Gonçalves, João S.
Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background
title Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background
title_full Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background
title_fullStr Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background
title_full_unstemmed Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background
title_short Hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background
title_sort hallucinations and related concepts—their conceptual background
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4515540/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26283978
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00991
work_keys_str_mv AT tellescorreiadiogo hallucinationsandrelatedconceptstheirconceptualbackground
AT moreiraanalucia hallucinationsandrelatedconceptstheirconceptualbackground
AT goncalvesjoaos hallucinationsandrelatedconceptstheirconceptualbackground