What it is like to hear voices that no-one else can hear?
Hearing voices is an important aspect of many people’s lives. It is an experience that can be distressing and upsetting, but also positive and meaningful.
We seek to provide a better understanding of this experience by examining it from different academic perspectives and working with voice-hearers, clinicians and mental health professionals.
About Us
Hearing the Voice is a large interdisciplinary study of voice-hearing, based at Durham University and funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Our international research team includes academics from anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, history, linguistics, literary studies, medical humanities, philosophy, psychology and theology. We also work closely with clinicians, voice-hearers and other experts by experience.
In addition to shedding light on the relations between hearing voices and everyday processes of sensory perception, memory, language and creativity, we are exploring why it is that some voices (and not others) are experienced as distressing, how they can change across the life course, and the ways in which voices can act as important social, cultural and political forces.
Find Out More
Highlights from the Blog
Writing on Air: Broadcast Literature Festival (21-24 March)
Love reading? Love writing? Hearing the Voice is delighted to have inspired Writing on Air 2019, a four-day broadcast festival of writing and literature from the Chapel FM Arts Centre (21-24 March 2019). Featuring over 60 shows and around 200 writers, poets,...
Understanding Voices Workshops: An invitation to voice-hearers and those who support them (Durham & London, March 2019)
HtV has been working with members of the voice-hearing community to develop Understanding Voices (UV) – a new web resource that will help people find clear, balanced, comprehensive information about voice-hearing. We have now built a prototype site and would be delighted if you could join us to provide feedback on what we have developed so far.
Keep in Touch
If you would like to keep up to date with the progress of Hearing the Voice research and receive information about forthcoming events and activities, sign up for our bi-monthly e-bulletin.
