What is it about?
The article examined how participants constructed the voice hearing identity. It highlighted the dilemma in constructing identity between acknowledging or disavowing distress to avoid the stigma attached to the experience of hearing voices.
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Why is it important?
The findings suggest the way that people who hear voices construct their identity in the current social context is problematic because they either have to disavow their own distress to avoid the stigma associated with this experience or accept the stigma attached to the voice hearing identity for others to recognise their distress. However even strategies that attempt to normalise this experience are problematic as they reinforce the status quo and the power of normalisation, continuing to marginalise those unable to attain this ideal.
Perspectives
I wrote this article to bring to the forefront identity issues for people who hear voices and to offer suggestions on how these may be addressed in clinical interventions.
Rebecca Aloneftis
City University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ‘We’re not all dangerous and crazy’. Negotiating the voice hearing identity: A critical discursive approach, Journal of Health Psychology, August 2019, SAGE Publications, DOI: 10.1177/1359105319869807.
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