Pseudohallucinations are poorly understood, with clinicians continuing to rely on historical contributions to inform their views. There have been a number of recent attempts to develop a phenomenologically adequate theory of psychotic symptoms, yet the reciprocal dependence between the structure of such theories and the understanding of pseudohallucinations remains unexploited. This paper seeks to progress the debate about the nature of pseudohallucinations whilst simultaneously providing implicit support for a new two-factor theory of psychotic symptoms by relating the important historical contributions by Hare and Jaspers to the contemporary debate about the aetiology of psychotic symptoms. It will be argued that the focus of Hare and Jaspers on abnormal experience and vivid imagination have their respective analogues in recent theories of psychotic symptoms. It will be suggested, however, that an adequate theory requires a contribution from both processes and that this suggests that there are two types of pseudohallucinations. The paper implies that the concept of pseudohallucination is central to relating aetiological to phenomenological considerations and concludes by drawing out some of the implications of the proposals for understanding pseudohallucinations involving insight and complex psychotic symptoms.

Keywords:
Phenomenology, Psychosis, Jaspers, Insight
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© 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel
2014
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