Researchers from Durham University’s Hearing the Voice project are attending the Edinburgh International Book Festival through August as part of a study, asking both readers and writers what their experiences are and hosting discussions and workshops about hearing voices, according to The Guardian. The project’s director, Charles Fernyhough, told the Guardian that, “It is usually considered a troubling symptom of a severe mental illness but is more and more being recognised as something that happens to a lot of people and there are a lot of different contexts.”
“Contributors to the project, ranging from novelists to medical researchers, will blog about what hearing voices means to them throughout the festival,” reports the Guardian. Anyone can take part in the study by filling in a questionnaire on the Inner Voices website.
“It is about breaking down the stereotypes, breaking the knee-jerk connections to serious mental illness. Above all if there is a message to people it is: don’t suffer in silence,” Fernyhough said.
Researchers investigate what it means to ‘hear voices’ (The Guardian, August 9, 2014)
Hearing the Voice Project at Durham University Questionnaire
