FROM SYMPTOMTO DIFFERENCE: “HEARING VOICES”
AS A PARADIGM FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE WITH
EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES
Renaud Evrard
Institut Métapsychique International; Center for Information, Research, and Counseling on
Exceptional Experiences, Paris, France
[
evrardrenaud@gmail.com ]
Traditionally considered psychopathological auditory-verbal hallucinations, voices heard by
patients, but also by many people from the general population, are currently the subject of much
attention from researchers, clinicians and public authorities. One might think that voice-hearing is a
psychopathological experience that has little to do with parapsychological phenomenology, except
when information is ostensibly acquired paranormally under the form of a voice. But paranormal
and spiritual interpretations of voices are ubiquitous in many studies of voice-hearing, and even are
outstanding examples of salutogenic appraisals of psychotic-like experiences. The research on the
type of appraisal along the axes ofinternal/external or personal/impersonal provides direct guidance
on clinical intervention strategies. No longer focusing on the “what” but rather on the “how” of
these experiences helps to avoid some biases relative to the assessment of beliefs - especially
unusual beliefs - in the clinical setting.
In this paper, I first describe the genesis of the Hearing Voices Movement, as presented by the
Dutch psychiatrist Marius Romme, and then selected research is reviewed on these anomalous
experiences. I argue that parapsychology has much to learn fromthe Hearing Voices Movement,
and vice versa. The change of perspective on voice-hearing - from a symptomto an individual
difference- may be generalized for all exceptional experiences, as the late Rhea White had begun to
establish with her Exceptional Human Experiences Network. This leads us to consider how
parapsychological research is used by people searching for meaning due to their exceptional
experiences, and conversely how researchers attempt to normalize these experiences. How to
maintain a clinical approach of exceptional experiences when facing a discourse that disqualifies
their psychopathological approach? As the figurehead of the broader movement of “recovery,” the
Hearing Voices Movement offers a competitive clinical practice, but fails to provide a true
differential clinical practice,starting from a neutral name-referring to several psychopathological
pathways that need to be distinguished.