Bicameral Mentality: Command Hallucinations

Hypothesis Two: Bicameral Mentality – Subtopic: Command Hallucinations
In his theory, Julian Jaynes explains how commanding hallucinations directed behavior in an earlier mentality, prior to the development of subjective consciousness. Jaynes’s theory would predict that auditory hallucinations would not just consist of random voices, but would in fact comment on or direct behavior. Unknown at the time, hallucinations commanding behavior, referred to as “command hallucinations,” have since been documented in dozens of studies. Below is a small sample of research supporting this aspect of Jaynes’s theory.

Articles

Books

Cognitive Therapy for Command Hallucinations

Cognitive Therapy for Command Hallucinations
Meaden, Alan, Nadine Keen, and Robert Aston (Routledge, 2013)
Auditory hallucinations rank amongst the most treatment resistant symptoms of schizophrenia, with command hallucinations being the most distressing, high risk and treatment resistant of all. This new work provides clinicians with a detailed guide, illustrating in depth the techniques and strategies developed for working with command hallucinations. Woven throughout with key cases and clinical examples, Cognitive Therapy for Command Hallucinations clearly demonstrates how these techniques can be applied in a clinical setting. Strategies and solutions for overcoming therapeutic obstacles are shown alongside treatment successes and failures to provide the reader with an accurate understanding of the complexities of cognitive therapy.