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History of Hallucinations
Last edited |
10/22/2008
The word “hallucinatory” has its roots in the Latin hallucinari
or allucinari, which means to wander in mind
Lavater introduced
“hallucination” in the English language in 1572 to refer to “ghostes and
spirites walking the nyght”. The word was first used in its current sense by
Jean Etienne Esquirol in 1837.
Descriptions of hallucinatory phenomena have
figured prominently in written documents since the beginning of recorded
history.
In
the Middle Ages, hallucinations were thought to be manifestations of demons or
angels.
A
religious person who experienced such phenomena was seen as a saint, whereas a
commoner was believed to be possessed by the devil.
In certain cultures today, hallucinations are still
perceived as the work of Satan or as a result of magic (Wahass & Kent, 1997).
Normally, hallucinations are perceptions that occur in the absence of
corresponding sensory stimuli.
From
the subjective point of view of the individual who experiences these phenomena,
they are indistinguishable from normal perceptions.
Something is perceived yet, objectively, there is nothing to perceive.
In
this sense, hallucinations are different from illusions, which are distortions
or misperceptions of a perceivable object.
However, people having hallucinations are confronted to other people dismissing
their perceptions.
Therefore, the estimation of hallucinations in the general population is based
on people having experienced perceptions not confirmed by others.
In the general population, using
the data from the NIMH epidemiological catchment area survey, Tien (1991) found
an incidence of visual hallucinations of 2% among men and 1.3% among women.
In a
comparative study of hallucinations in the general population and among
schizophrenics, Lindal et al. (1994) observed that the former mainly reported
visual hallucinations involving persons, whereas the latter were more likely to
report other types of hallucinations.
However, schizophrenia is relatively
infrequent in the general population.
In the United States, the Epidemiological Catchment Area study (Regier et al., 1988) found a lifetime prevalence of
schizophrenia of 1.5%.
This prevalence was 0.7% in the National Comorbidity
Survey (Kendler et al., 1996).
An Israeli survey found a prevalence of 0.7% in
individuals aged 35-45 years (Levav et al., 1993).
Content of this page is extracted from Ohayon MM.
Prevalence of
hallucinations and their pathological associations in the general population.
Psychiatry Res. 2000 Dec 27;97(2-3):153-64.
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