Introduction to Writers’ Inner Voices

The idea that writers “hear” the voices of their characters is a common one. Some writers even go as far as to claim that the characters that people their narratives seem to somehow write themselves: that they, the writer, are a mere conduit for voices that appear to have lives all of their own.

The aim of the Writers’ Inner Voices project is to try to understand writers’ and storytellers’ inner speech and the role that the inner voice or voices play in the process of literary creation.

Many writers – from William Blake, to Charles Dickens, to Joseph Conrad, to Philip K. Dick – have written or talked about experiencing auditory verbal hallucinations, or hearing voices that others cannot hear. The Writers’ Inner Voices project also aims to explore what relationship there might be, if any, between writers’ experiences and the experience of hearing voices.

During the 2014 Edinburgh International Book Festival, as part of the Conversations with Ourselves strand of events, authors and storytellers were  interviewed about their creative process and finding out more about the ways that writers and storytellers imagine, hear, listen to and converse with the voices of their characters. You can read more about the project on the blog, where the interviews with authors and storytellers during the festival are kept.

https://writersinnervoices.com/

The voices in my head - BBC Documentary

This moving documentary uses audio reconstruction to "take viewers in to the world of three people who hear voices as a result of mental illness. Around 1 in 10 adults hear voices in their heads as a result of a number of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia.

Kyle started hearing a voice after he lost his job, house and girlfriend in quick succession, he then attacked himself. As Kyle tries to control the voice, he has to come to terms with the possibility that he may have to get used to life with it.

Emmalina has been hearing a collection of voices since she was a child and has found that by welcoming them in, they can all live relatively peacefully - except when the voice of 'the devil' appears. After traumatic experiences earlier in her life, the voices have become a source of comfort and companionship, but they have also made her more isolated. We follow Emmalina as she strives to become more independent.

After four years Chaz is still fighting her voice, which keeps up a steady stream of abuse in Chaz's ear. She has jumped off a bridge twice, leaving her reliant on a wheelchair - but still she feels drawn back to a nearby bridge. The film follows her attempts to resist, as she looks to poetry as a way to cope."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066kvg5

The World is Never Quiet

Last night I visited Durham Town Hall to watch a rehearsed reading of The World is Never Quiet, a new play by David Napthine.

David was writer in residence for the world’s first major exhibition on voice-hearing – Hearing Voices: suffering, inspiration and the everyday – that took place at Durham University’s Palace Green Library from November 2016 to February 2017. David has used this experience to construct a play about Durham and its voice-hearers.

The event was held in a very grand room within Durham Town Hall. The layout of the room was cabaret style seating. 

After a brief introduction to the event, 9 actors took to the stage in an arched line facing the audience.

The narrative featured a range of individuals all of whom experienced hearing voices in some form. For example, one character, Carol, was caught in the middle of a nagging motherly voice and the voice of her better self. Another character experienced spiritual and religious voices. The narrative skipped from one actor to another, giving the impression that these voices were scattered around the city.

Given that this is a work in progress, the audience were encouraged to provide some feedback:

The grand setting of the Town Hall had an impact on my reading of the performance. I could not help but feel a distance between the actors and the audience. The formality of the hall placed me in an unfamiliar situation somewhat disconnected to contemporary society. The sense of grandeur that was created by the venue, did not seem appropriate for the play. My feeling of slight unease at being in such a venue made it more challenging for me to connect with the action. There was a sense of hierarchy and the actors were presenting to the audience as opposed to being integrated within the audience.

This was particularly true of one of the actors who exaggerated their lines in a way that was quite patronising and as though they were narrating and talking to a child. They were giving an account of hearing voices as opposed to some of the others who seemed to be sharing their experience of living with voices. This second approach was much more genuine and engaging.

I appreciated hearing the range of different types of voices that the characters experienced. I saw this as an effort to avoid conforming to the stigma that associates hearing voices with mental illness, psychosis and schizophrenia. I believe this is a real strength of the play and is commendable.

Overall, I found the narrative enjoyable, and think that with some simple adjustments to the staging and delivery of the lines, that the play could be really good.

http://hearingthevoice.org/2017/12/13/the-world-is-never-quiet-26-january-2018/

My Mind and Me on Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 have a programme called My Mind and Me which covers topics relating to mental health. 

Episodes include:

Dealing with depression

Tips to beat stress

What is mental health?

Dealing with abuse

The latest set of episodes is all about hearing voices. Over 10 episodes the story of Alice is told.

"Imagine hearing voices in your head. Alice does. She’s a 27-year-old mum who’s had different characters in her mind since she was about 15. They all have names and personalities and they can be hard to ignore. Alice wants to tell you about them so you can understand what it's like to live with schizophrenia."

- Donna - Join Alice as she invites you to meet the very first voice she ever heard, Donna. Welcome to her inner world.

- Rose and Rachel - Join Alice as she gets her revenge on a couple of voices in her head. They're a tricky pair, Rose and Rachel, but Alice has worked out how she can get her own back.

- Michael - This is a love story between Alice and someone very special to her. You'll find out what happened when the voice she loved the most in the world turned into one of her most frightening.

- Mum and Dad - As if things weren't confusing enough for Alice, she started hearing her mum and dad's voices in her head. But, they weren't exactly like her parents in real life.

- Celebrity voices - Alice's voices are often frightening, but in this episode she reveals how she hears celebrity voices which lighten the mood. She even has a bit of a crush on one of them.

- Tony - Leaving the house can be hard sometimes for Alice because that's when she'll hear muffled voices from crowds in the street or supermarket. It's confusing and makes her feel paranoid, but she's learnt over the years how to cope with it.

- Ricky - Alice talks about how sometimes when she's feeling low, she self-harms. But there's a voice which can lift her mood and sometimes she pines to hear from Ricky.

- Joshua - Alice's positivity oozes through this episode. She's in a good place in her life right now and she talks about the voice which reflects this and that's Joshua. She also reveals her plans for the future, which include maths... and bras. Prepare to be inspired.

- Stigma - We're nearing the end of Alice's story and she wants to deal with some of the stigma surrounding schizophrenia. Some people assume those with the illness are deluded all the time and that they never have any sense of reality. In this episode Alice explains why that's actually far from the truth.

- Last voice - Over the years Alice has experienced positive and negative voices, in this final episode she reveals whether she'd get rid of them if she could. It's a difficult question and her answer might surprise you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05q82d8

Hearing Voices Doesn't Always Indicate Mental Illness, Study Says

BY DORY JACKSON 

@DORY_JACKSON 

'The study, published in academic journal "Brain," refers to these people as "voice-hearers." Researcher's discovered that those who can hear internal voices are better at deciphering concealed speech-like sounds. They wanted to find more beneficial ways to aid those who find their internal voices alarming.

"These findings are a demonstration of what we can learn from people who hear voices that are not distressing or problematic," Dr. Ben Alderson-Day, Research Fellow from Durham University and the study's lead offer, said in a EurekAlert press release. "It suggests that the brains of people who hear voices are particularly tuned to meaning in sounds, and shows how unusual experiences might be influenced by people's individual perceptual and cognitive processes."

The small study incorporated 17 people who didn't possess voice-hearing abilities and 12 who did, which is also known as auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). Study participants with AVH did not suffer from mental illness. However, many people who have AVH suffer from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Both disorders are mental health conditions that allow sufferers to can hear internal voices.

Participants were instructed to listen to disguised speech sounds, also known as swine-wave speech, during an MRI brain scan. The voice-hearers detected hidden speech before they were informed it was there. Voice-hearers also noticed the speech at a quicker rate than those who had no prior-history of hearing voices. Exactly 75 percent of voice-hearers heard hidden speech sounds, whereas only 47 percent of non-voice-hearers confirmed these noises.

"These participants showed distinct neural responses to sounds containing disguised speech, as compared to sounds that were meaningless," study co-author Dr. Cesar Lima said in a Durham University news release. "This was interesting to us because it suggests that their brains can automatically detect meaning in sounds that people typically struggle to understand unless they are trained."

Up to 15 percent of the population has the ability to occasionally hear voices in their head without "distress," according to the study. Research also suggests that roughly one percent of the population experience more complex and continuous voice-hearing. Again, this does not indicate the need for psychiatric care.

The research is a part of Durham University's "Hearing the Voice" project. This project aims to gather stronger comprehension of the experience behind hearing a voice when no one else is present. Durham's researchers, who worked with University College London researchers to obtain the study's results, also wanted to increase their knowledge of voice-hearing by examining it through different perspectives.

http://www.ibtimes.com/hearing-voices-doesnt-always-indicate-mental-illness-study-says-2584427

The Minimalists

The more I think about hearing voices, the more I think about being overwhelmed and experiencing stress from too much 'stuff' going on.

A friend recommended that I watch Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things.

This asks the question, How might your life be better with less?

The documentary "examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from all walks of life—families, entrepreneurs, architects, artists, journalists, scientists, and even a former Wall Street broker—all of whom are striving to live a meaningful life with less."

Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus are the Minimalists. They were successful, attractive, high achievers with all the mod-cons and in their late twenties who, by all accounts, had everything they needed to be happy. Yet they were not; they were dissatisfied and unhappy.



"In 2011, we left our corporate careers at age 30. After publishing our first book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, we went on an international book tour and eventually began contributing to people through our online writing classes and private mentoring sessions.

We’ve been fortunate enough to establish an audience of more than 20 million people, and we’ve been featured all over the media. We have spoken at Harvard Business School, Apple, and several large conferences (SXSW, TEDx, World Domination Summit), as well as many smaller venues, including churches, colleges, corporate groups, libraries, soup kitchens, and various nonprofit organizations.

Toward the end of 2012, we moved from our hometown, Dayton, Ohio, to a cabin near Philipsburg, Montana, as a four-month experiment, followed by a move to beautiful Missoula in 2013, where we cofounded Asymmetrical Press, a publishing house for the indie at heart.

In 2014, we published a new book, Everything That Remains, and embarked on a 100-city Everything That Remains Tour.

In 2015, we published our third book, Essential: Essays by The Minimalists, which presents a minimalist’s perspective on twelve different areas of life—from decluttering, gift-giving, and finances, to passion, health, and relationships. We also hit the road with five other authors and one musician for Asymmetrical Press’s first-ever WordTasting Tour.

In January 2016, we launched The Minimalists Podcast, where we discuss living a meaningful life with less and answer questions from our listeners."

The documentary is fascinating, and introduced me to some exercises that I think will be useful to me (and to anyone wishing to declutter).

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/minimalismfilm

http://www.theminimalists.com/

@TheMinimalists

Talking to ourselves

I recently discovered the BBC World Service podcast called 'The Why Factor' in which "Mike Williams searches for the extraordinary and hidden histories behind everyday objects and actions to inform us about the way we live in the 21st Century and questions why we do the things we do". Through my research into 'the voice', I was directed to the episode titled 'Talking to ourselves'.

There are a number of reasons why people talk to themselves, for instance

- to provide some company

- as a tool of survival

- to make us feel comfortable

- to help organise thoughts

- to go through instructions out aloud

- as a way of making us feel calmer

- as a form of therapy

- to be a source of reassurrance

- to process feelings and thoughts by speaking out loud

- to help us when we need to concentrate

- to aid memory

- as a way to drown out the chatter of the various other parts of the brain


Talking to ourselves does not mean that we have a mental illness!

When we remember something in public and make a sound e.g. "oops!", it may be a way of trying to demonstrate to others around that one is sane, but have just forgotten something.

In the 1970s, the American psychologist Julian Jaynes proposed that humans stored information in the right side of the brain. He thought that the left and right side of the brain were more independent than we now think, and that the information in the right side of the brain needed to be transferred to the left side of the brain via the bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum.

According to Jaynes, the message was transmitted in the form of language, and people tended to perceive this as a voice coming from outside of themselves, as an auditory hallucination. These external voices were often attributed to leaders, the monarchy or the gods.

Jaynes later acknowledged that the voices were not always from outside of the self, but could come from within ones self in the form of an inner critic.

When we are young, the people around us give us lots of rules to follow and they influence our perception of who we are and who we think we ought to be.

When someone is traumatised, they may try to protect themselves by disassociating themselves from their inner critic or internal voice, and instead believe that it is the voice of an other. This is otherwise known as an auditory hallucination. The difference between someone who experiences inner speech and someone who is mentally ill and has auditory hallucinations is that those with mental health issues believe the voices they hear are outside of themselves as opposed to from within. To complicate matters, not all inner critics are heard as though they are coming from the head. There are some people who hear their inner voice from their stomachs or elsewhere in the body.