A fascinating synthesis of traditionally competing theories to help understand and explain the phenomenon of hearing voices

The experience of 'hearing voices', once associated with lofty prophetic communications, has fallen low. Today, the experience is typically portrayed as an unambiguous harbinger of madness caused by a broken brain, an unbalanced mind, biology gone wild. Yet an alternative account, forged predominantly by people who hear voices themselves, argues that hearing voices is an understandable response to traumatic life-events. There is an urgent need to overcome the tensions between these two ways of understanding 'voice hearing'.

Simon McCarthy-Jones considers neuroscience, genetics, religion, history, politics and not least the experiences of many voice hearers themselves. This enables him to challenge established and seemingly contradictory understandings and to create a joined-up explanation of voice hearing that is based on evidence rather than ideology.

"Clinicians should recommend this volume to their patients, scientists should recommend it to their students, and voice hearers should recommend it to others in the voice hearing community. I cannot think of a better accolade than to say few would fail to benefit from reading this volume, irrespective of whether the audience is seeking answers to the experiences one is having or seeking guidance on the underlying mechanisms of voice hearing per se." - American Psychological Association

"This is a little gem of a book, and a must-have for anyone working with, living with, or curious about voices." - Psychosis