Society's Influence on Voice Hearers

The social constructionist approach to psychic life and deviance essentially states that “norms” and deviance are socially created, so our interactions with others within our society can either categorize us as normal or deviant (or, in some cases, insane). The experience of Eleanor Longdon and the people described in the New York Times article, Can You Live With the Voices in Your Head?, reflect a notion of selfhood that is consistent with that proposed by the social constructionist approach because they both helped us become aware that society (as well as mainstream psychology) make Voice Hearers think that there is something wrong with them, which in turn makes their illness worsen rather than improve. In Luske’s excerpt, Mirrors of Madness (Chapter 2: Border Crossing), a patient named Samuel summed this up very clearly: he said, “Psychotic means off the wall. It makes me feel worse than I am. I’ve been diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and manic-depressive. It’s like calling me a dumb asshole, psycho, into drugs–really crazy. I don’t know what it [psychotic] means except brain damaged. My problem is that I’ve been called so many things I start believing I’m psychotic because Doctor so-and-so said so. I don’t want to believe that,” (Luske,
p. 39). Eleanor Longdon also shed light on the issue of thinking there is something wrong with you (or with the Voices that you hear) by explaining her experiences when she had attempted to fight the Voices because she felt as though they were evil and all powerful. When Longdon attempted to fight the Voices in her head, they became much more demonic and frightening to her, but once she had learned to cope with the Voices and even understand the reasons her subconscious (the Voices) was telling her the things that it was, she was able to take back her sanity and learn to incorporate the Voices in her head into her life. It is apparent how much society plays a role in labeling Voice Hearers as insane, when even “normal” people reportedly hear voices. In fact, Luske’s excerpt in Mirrors of Madness (Chapter 3: Patrolling the Border) explains to us that the staff in the mental institution, EPIC, exhibit signs of closet insanity. Luske states, “[The] staff attempt[s] to convince themselves and everybody else that they are on the right side of the wall after all. Staff contrast themselves with labeled psychotics in four basic, interrelated ways,” (Luske, p. 60). The four ways the staff separated themselves from the patients are that they (in their opinions) cope better with pain and problems that occur on a daily basis, have less distressing private experiences, have more rational “unusual” experiences, and claim that they have a more normal biology. One staff member, Susan, states, “There are chemical differences between us and them,” (Luske, pg. 63). By stating that the staff and patients have biological differences (regardless of their psychological similarities), they are attempting to prove that they should be deemed sane and the patients should be deemed insane. Voice Hearers seem to be much better off learning how to live with their illness, rather than just taking medication to try and silence it; learning coping techniques is especially useful considering how unsuccessful the medication seems to be at “silencing” the Voices. Incredibly, Voice Hearers (specifically non-patients) are able to not only survive, but learn to thrive in spite of their situation.
Psychiatric hegemony is the dominance of psychiatric medicine over other, non-medicinal treatment methods. The NY Times article in question sheds light on the use of medication to drown out, or more accurately the attempt to control, the Voices, which in reality only causes unnecessary side effects like the loss of emotions or energy, instead of doing anything to cease the Voices in the patient’s head. According to the article, the use of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) was a much more helpful form of treatment than any medication. CBT helped the patients learn to cope and ultimately live with the Voices in their heads, rather than promising them the miraculous eradication of the Voices: something that the medication was never actually able to do. One patient, Teresa, in Mirrors of Madness (Chapter 2: Border Crossing), stated, “They [the drugs] slow down and depress my moods immensely. When I don’t take them, I’m aware, fast, speedy, quick and bright. When I take them, I sleep, am drowsy, dizzy–more depressed– sleepy and dopey all the time. It’s a doped up, unaware state of mind. It was very impure–I felt persecuted by the drugs,” (Luske, p. 33). According to Teresa, as well as many other patients mentioned within the excerpt, the medication put them in both a “zombie like state,” so instead of helping them feel more alive and productive, they essentially felt dead inside. In our society (especially in the US), we prefer the quick fixes, so we think that if there is a form of medication that can “cure” an illness, then it should be used, no questions asked. The article shows that this illness, in particular, is not something that has an easy fix. In fact, the easiest “fix” is helping to teach the patient in question to learn to live along side their Voices.
If, instead of empowering the Big Pharma by using medication to “treat” this illness in the US, we adopted the methods created by the Hearing Voices Movement, not only would society’s perception of the Voice Hearers change, but their perception of themselves would also change. If we stopped treating Voice Hearing as some disease that can be cured with the use of a pill, and instead helped teach those who hear Voices to cope with them and learn to live beside them, I think that those who suffer with Schizophrenia would live happier and more fulfilled lives. The Voice Hearers would not think of themselves as sick, but instead think of themselves as normal or even special, so they would have a greater opportunity to live normal and productive lives, despite their so-called illness.