On 2/22/07, Brent Meeker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > > > A patient says that his leg is paralysed, behaves as if his leg is > > paralysed, but the clinical signs and investigations are not consistent > > with a paralysed leg. The diagnosis of hysterical paralysis is made. A > > patient claims to hear voices of people nobody else sees, responds to > > the voices as if they are there, but the clinical signs and response to > > antipsychotic treatment is not consistent with the auditory > > hallucinations experienced by peopel with psychotic illness. The > > diagnosis of hysterical hallucinations is made: that is, they aren't > > hearing voices that aren't there, they only *think* they're hearing > > voices that aren't there. > > How is this diagnosis made? It sounds like an impossible distinction - a > scientific resolution of the zombie question.
The diagnosis of "pseudohallucinations" is made if they don't have the characteristics typical of hallucinations in schizophrenia - that is, there are third person observable differences. Without these differences it would be impossible to tell and, since psychiatry at least aspires to be an empirical science, the possibility is generally ignored. However, you can have delusions about anything, so it should be at least theoretically possible to have a delusion that you are having a perception. Patients frequently report delusional memories of perceptions: that is, they insist that they had a conversation or experience that they could not even have hallucinated, because they were under observation at the time of the alleged incident. Suppose this process is happening "live", so that they believe they are hearing a voice and responding as if they are hearing a voice even though they are not even hallucinating such a thing. We might speculate that the actual experience would surely feel different to the mere belief that they are having the experience, but if they could notice such a difference they would not be deluded. Stathis Papaioannou --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
