SPECIAL KINDS OF HALLUCINATIONS

PRACHI BHAVESH SANGHVII M.Sc CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

ST. AGNES CENTER FOR POST-GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEACH

Special kinds of hallucinations•Functional hallucination•Reflex hallucination•Extracampine hallucination•Autoscopic hallucination

Patient’s attitude towards hallucination

FUNCTIONAL HALLUCINATION

•An external stimulus is necessary to provoke hallucination, but the normal perception of the stimulus and the hallucination in the same modality are experienced simultaneously.•Patient can readily separate the noise from the voices and both perceptions are recognized as distinct and real.•Common in chronic schizophrenia.•Distinguishing illusion from functional hallucination

REFLEX HALLUCINATION

•A hallucinatory form of synaesthesia (a sensory stimulus in one modality resulting in sensory experience in another).•A stimulus in one sensory modality produces a hallucination in another sense modality.•These hallucinations do not have much diagnostic significance.

EXTRACAMPINE HALLUCINATION

•The patient has a hallucination which is outside the limits of the sensory field; outside the visual field or beyond the range of audibility.•These hallucinations do not have much diagnostic significance.•They can be hypnagogic, organic, schizophrenic or occur in epilepsy.•It is quite definitely experienced as a perception by the patient and not just as a belief or an idea.

AUTOSCOPIC HALLUCINATION

•A visual experience where the patient sees an image of himself in external space viewed from within their own physical body.•Kinaesthetic and somatic sensation must also be present, but disturbance in visual perception is an essential feature.•It can occur in normal people when they are emotionally disturbed, tired or exhausted. Occasionally, it is a hysterical symptom.

•Few schizophrenics have autoscopic hallucination, but they are more common in delirious states.

•The organic states more often associated with autoscopy are epilepsy and focal lesions.

•Also found in drug addicts and chronic alcoholics.

•A few patients suffering from organic conditions look in the mirror and see no image. This is called ‘negative autoscopy.’

•In ‘internal autoscopy,’ the patient sees his own internal organs.

PATIENT’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS HALLUCINATIONS

•The patient is usually terrified by the visual hallucinations and may try desperately to get away from them. •Many patients feel threatened and are generally suspicious.•Depressed patients often hear voices abusing them or telling them to kill themselves.

•The onset of voices in acute schizophrenia is often very frightening and the patient, at times, may attack the person he believes to be their source.

•Those with chronic schizophrenia on the other hand are often not troubled by the voices and may treat them as acquaintances, but a few patients complain bitterly about them.

•Patients who have insight may deny hallucinations, since they know this is an abnormal feature.

REFERENCES

• Hamilton M. (1994). Fish’s Clinical Psychopathology. Varghese Publishing House, Bombay.

• Oyebode F. (2010). Sims’ Symptoms in the Mind; An Introduction to Descriptive Psychopathology. Rajkamal Electric Press, Kundli.