Main description:

The work aims to provide an overview of the field of contemporary hallucinations research. It will consist of 28 chapters, the writing of which will be put out to international experts specialized in the specific fields at hand. The work aims to be unique, in that it intends to cover many different types of hallucination, and to approach the subject matter from four different perspectives, i.e., conceptual, phenomenological, neuroscientific, and therapeutic.

Feature:

Aims to provide an overview of the field of contemporary hallucinations research

Intends to cover many different types of hallucination

Approaches the subject matter from four different perspectives, i.e., conceptual, phenomenological, neuroscientific, and therapeutic

Back cover:

Hallucinations continue to fascinate people throughout the world. The mere possibility of perceiving things that are not there is the stuff that campfire tales are made of. It is one thing to be in a dream state, to be asleep and to conjure up people, scenes, and landscapes that do not actually exist, but it is quite another to hallucinate: to be wide awake, and yet hear that ethereal music, see those costumed figures strolling by, smell the roses that used to grow in your grandfather’s garden, feel his hand upon your shoulder, sense his presence somewhere near -- and to be the only one able to experience it.

In this book, 44 international neuroscientific experts join forces to present a state-of-the-art overview of hallucinatory phenomena, ranging from visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and bodily hallucinations to less well-known phenomena such as synaesthesias, musical hallucinations, hallucinated pain, autoscopic phenomena, phantom sensations, sensed presences, and compound hallucinations attributed to djinns. Additional sections deal with the conceptual, phenomenological, and neuroscientific aspects of those phenomena, and offer an update on contemporary treatment possibilities ranging from pharmacotherapy to electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and self-help groups.

This book is essential reading for neuroscientists, neurologists, psychiatrists, general physicians, psychologists, historians of science, and philosophers professionally involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and scientific study of hallucinations.

Jan Dirk Blom, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director of the Psychiatric Residency Training Programme of the Parnassia Bavo Group in The Hague, and holds a position as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Groningen.

Iris E.C. Sommer, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Contents:

Foreword- Anthony David

1. General introduction- Iris Sommer & Jan Dirk Blom

I. CONCEPTUAL  ISSUES

2. The construction of visual reality- Donald Hoffman

3. Consciousness, memory, and hallucinations- Ralf-Peter Behrendt

4. A network model of hallucinations- Rutger Goekoop & Jasper Looijestijn

5. The construction of hallucination: History and epistemology- German Berrios & Ivana Marková

II. HALLUCINATORY PHENOMENA

6. Visual hallucinations- Daniel Collerton, Rob Dudley, & Urs Peter Mosimann

7. Synaesthesias- Devin Blair Terhune & Roi Cohen Kadosh

8. Auditory verbal hallucinations, first-person accounts- Steven Scholtus & Christine Blanke

9. Auditory verbal hallucinations- Kelly Diederen & Iris Sommer

10. Auditory verbal hallucinations in patients with borderline personality disorder- Christina Slotema & David Kingdon

11. Musical hallucinations- Oliver Sacks & Jan Dirk Blom

12. Olfactory and gustatory hallucinations- Dick Stevenson & Robyn Langdon

13. Hallucinations of bodily sensation- Jan Dirk Blom & Iris Sommer

14. Hallucinatory pain: central pain- Sergio Canavero

15. Autoscopic phenomena: clinical and experimental perspectives- Anna Sforza & Olaf Blanke

16. Phantom limb, phantom body, phantom self. A phenomenology of ‘body hallucinations’- Peter Brugger

17. Sensed presences- James Allan Cheyne

18. Djinns-Jan Dirk Blom & Cor Hoffer

III. RESEARCH

19. Structural neuroimaging in psychotic patients with auditory verbal hallucinations- Paul Allen& Gemma Modinos

20. Functional neuroimaging of hallucinations- André Aleman & Ans Vercammen

21. Neurophysiological research: EEG and MEG- Remko van Lutterveld & Judith Ford

22. Psychoactive substances-Vicka Corey , John Halpern, & Torsten Passie

23. Examining the continuum model of auditory hallucinations: A review of cognitive models-Johanna Badcock & Kenneth Hugdahl

IV. TREATMENT

24. Classical somatic treatments: Pharmacotherapy and ECT-Iris Sommer & Jan Dirk Blom

25. Experimental somatic treatments: Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of auditory verbal hallucinations. A meta-analysis and review- Christina Slotema & Jeff Daskalakis

26. Cognitive-behavioral therapy- Mark van der Gaag

27. Groundwork for the treatment of voices: Introducing the Coping-With-Voices Protocol-Willemijn van Gastel & Kirstin Daalman

28. The Hearing Voices Movement- Sandra Escher & Marius Romme

Bibliography of books on hallucinations

Index