Tuesday, June 27, 2006
A scary true story: man hears voices
A friend of mine told me this story. It comes from a Young Offender's
Institute, where she does some voluntary work. One of the inmates (I'm
sure they have a more PC word for them, but I'm going to call them
inmates), a fourteen-year-old boy, came to his mentor in some distress.
"I'm hearing voices in my head!" he complained. Cue panic: a mental
health nurse is drafted in, and they set up an interview with this kid.
Let's call him Sam (I don't know his real name.)
"Sam, tell us about these voices. When did they start?"
"Well, it was the uvver night, I was listnin to these two blokes
chattin', and this voice in my head said, like, 'that bloke's a
tosser'. An' ever since, I can't get away. I'll be, like, sitting in my
cell on me own, and it'll be, like, there. All da
fcukin' time."
"And what does it say?"
"Jus' like, stuff. About me. About wha'ever."
"Does this voice tell you to do things?"
"Nah, like, it's just dissin' people and goin' on, innit."
... so after a bit more of this, the nurse comes to a conclusion:
"Sam, we think we know what the voice is. You don't need to worry about
it - this voice is you. It's called
thinking. We all have it. Doctors call it your inner
monologue, or inner narrative." (or something... I made that bit up.)
Seriously. This child, aged fourteen, had never heard his own thoughts
before. He was scared, really scared, of his own inner narrative. The
idea of an internal monologue, such as the one which is reading this
back to me, was totally alien to him. How scary is
that?
(Apologies for my poor attempt at a teen accent).
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15 comments:
...and no, I'm not going to do that. No matter how many times you tell me to. And anyway, they won't let me have any sharp objects. No! Go away! La la la... (etc.)
My inner voice doesn't shut the hell up. It's very annoying sometimes. :) It does help now and then, though.
Interesting! I wonder how the hell that happens.
That is very unusual. I have never even heard of anyone with this condition. My best friend earned his doctorate in psychology. I must, of course, seek his opinion.
Interesting. I guess it's possible to think relatively clearly but not to have it manifest itself verbally. Hard to imagine, though. I wonder when people normally gain that ability.
I remember, in grade 3, our teacher asking us to close our eyes and picture something. I had no idea what she was talking about. If you close your eyes, you can't see anything. All the other kids claimed they could do it but I couldn't. I can visualize things now but, at that time, no way. I don't remember when I gained the ability. Not sure when people normally do.
Lends some credibility to the idea that early religions were brought about by people not knowing what to make of their own "thought voices," and thinking it to be a God.
Here is another opinion:
Interesting.. But also think the kid was maybe detoxing as well.. And a bit
teasing the nurse.. Playing games.. But guess it's possible.. I've seen the
teasing part more however.. It can be a game at times.. If real.. It's sad..
But one reason not to hear the voice.. Or thoughts before is that they were
stoned most of the time..
Here is another opinion:
Interesting.. But also think the kid was maybe detoxing as well.. And a bit
teasing the nurse.. Playing games.. But guess it's possible.. I've seen the
teasing part more however.. It can be a game at times.. If real.. It's sad..
But one reason not to hear the voice.. Or thoughts before is that they were
stoned most of the time..
Ego defense in action. A chance for the youngster to talk about his "perfect" life outside of detention, to offer to those who make decisions for him his rendition of the better life, in order that those he sees have authority over him will sense some peak of improvement and will expedite his release from confinement.
It's interesting, isn't it? My own personal theory is that this might be possible simply through an excess of media - constant music, constant television, your attention span chopped up into tiny pieces by ten second soundbites and the constant hum of adverts - and not needing to be able to think. I know I've had periods in my life (specifically when I was at art college) where I didn't feel able to think clearly - not through any drug, but just because my attention was being dragged in too many directions at once. And maybe because I was trying to think visually rather than verbally.
Take your point about the kid playing games, though, Charl. That's equally possible.
I just wish that you could make it STOP sometimes. Right now mine is singing "I'm being followed by a Moonshadow" Odd how it's contagious, because all of you will be singing that song too. HAR HAR HAR!
I knew a guy who came out with something like this in the middle of a long car journey. He was a good guy, not self concious at all - Some people said he was a bit simple, but he just did whatever he felt was the right thing to do at the time. I always quite admired him for that. Often, you just don't need narration - while it's good for organising and structuring thoughts, it's also prone to hesitation, confusion and over-analysis - furthermore, it's hard to experience any particular moment directly if you're over-aware of yourself - it's a good thing to forget about sometimes.
And yes, I'd go along with the theories that link this sort of phenomena with early man's progression and development into the norm we recognise today. It's not better, or worse - more or less evolved - it's just the way we've generally gone, allowing language to structure and inhabit the way we think.
But no, I don't find it scary - In fact, I'd quite like to be like that more often myself.
Damn you. Damn you to Cat Stevens Hell.
"...moonshadow, moonshadow.."
I wonder if this poor kid was simply a victim of the iPod/Walkman generation, from the sort of home where the TV is never off?
[EDIT[ Oops, that theory has already been put forward. Sorry Moom.
Precisely why a considerable literature is devoted to speculation on hidden aspects of the personality, and specifically our reactions to, and projections on, what we discern as non-self or emanating from our environment. The base theory is that there is one set of personality traits that encompasses our internal dialog about our milieu and corresponding overt behavior in the milieu. An interesting paradox arises, for example, when you make the statement about someone "choosing to be consistent" in their response to questions. Much like implying "all ain't at it appears".
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