Accepting Voices by Marius Romme and Sandra Escher is an influential work examining the experience of hearing voices and challenging conventional assumptions about what such experiences necessarily mean. Drawing upon extensive work with people who hear voices, the authors explore how individuals understand, respond to and learn to live with their experiences.
Rather than beginning with the assumption that voice-hearing must always be treated solely as a symptom of mental illness, Romme and Escher focus upon the experiences and interpretations of voice-hearers themselves. Their work became closely associated with the development of the international Hearing Voices Movement, which encouraged greater attention to personal testimony, individual meaning and different approaches to coping with voices.
An important theme is the distinction between hearing voices and being unable to cope with hearing voices. Romme and Escher observed that some people report hearing voices without becoming psychiatric patients or experiencing severe disruption to everyday life. The book therefore examines factors that may influence whether voice-hearing becomes distressing and considers strategies people have developed to understand and manage their experiences.
The authors present a range of accounts from voice-hearers, recognising that people interpret their experiences differently. Some understand voices psychologically or in relation to difficult life experiences, while others may use spiritual, religious or other explanatory frameworks. The book's emphasis is less upon imposing a single explanation and more upon understanding the individual's experience and helping them develop constructive ways of responding to it.
The book explores:
The experience of hearing voices
Different interpretations of voice-hearing
Coping with distressing voices
Personal accounts from voice-hearers
Psychiatry and alternative approaches to unusual experiences
The relationship between voices and life experiences
Developing greater control over responses to voices
Recovery, empowerment and self-understanding
The origins of the Hearing Voices approach
This title will appeal to readers interested in:
Hearing voices and voice-hearing experiences
Psychology and psychiatry
The Hearing Voices Movement
Consciousness and unusual human experiences
Mental health and recovery approaches
Personal accounts of voice-hearing
Spiritual and psychological interpretations of unusual experiences
Marius Romme and Sandra Escher