Reconceptualizing Psychosis: The Hearing Voices Movement and Social Approaches to Health

Abstract

The Hearing Voices Movement is an international grassroots movement that aims to shift public and professional attitudes toward experiences—such as hearing voices and seeing visions—that are generally associated with psychosis. The Hearing Voices Movement identifies these experiences as having personal, relational, and cultural significance. Incorporating this perspective into mental health practice and policy has the potential to foster greater understanding and respect for consumers/survivors diagnosed with psychosis while opening up valuable avenues for future research. However, it is important that a focus on individual experiences of adversity not supersede attention to larger issues of social and economic injustice. Access to appropriate mental health care is a human right; this article will argue that the right to health additionally extends beyond individual-level interventions.