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Article
July 1960

Benign Auditory and Visual Hallucinations

Author Affiliations

Northville, Mich.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Wayne State University College of Medicine.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1960;3(1):95-98. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1960.01710010097012
Abstract

Even before the time Esquirol introduced the term hallucination and differentiated it from illusion, the occurrence of these phenomena when met with in the psychoses have provided diagnostic criteria of considerable significance. It has become increasingly evident that under exceptional circumstances "normals" may also hallucinate.1-3 Medlicott4 expressed his opinion and experience that hallucinatory phenomena are quite common in the sane, whether healthy or psychoneurotic. One cannot fail to be impressed with the relationship of hallucinated perception in the "normal" and concomitant circumstances of stress. The source of the stress may be from inner turmoil or from external events. I should consider occult phenomena, couvade, and hallucinations of religious content as examples of the former and circumstances of sensory deprivation, whether accidental or experimental, as examples of the latter. The culturally encouraged hallucinatory experiences of some societies likewise seem to depend upon some manner of stressful deprivation. The

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