Remembering Voices

Abstract A key focus of the Hearing the Voice Phenomenological Interview is the question of when participants’ voices started. This chapter explores some of the implications of asking about the onset of voices, and some of the processes that might be involved in giving an autobiographical account of hallucinations. Drawing on accounts of remembered voices in the Voices in Psychosis transcripts, the chapter examines factors, including age of voice onset, social relational context, voice content, and emotional valence. There are reasons to believe that at least some trauma-related voices are, like autobiographical memories, reconstructive processes, and studying accounts of voice-hearing in light of their demands on memory might be instructive in understanding why some voices are distressing.