The qualitative difference of visions and visual hallucinations: a comparison of a general-population and clinical sample

• Published in: Comprehensive Psychiatry
• Main Authors: Lindal, E, Stefansson, J G, Stefansson, S B
• Other Authors: Department of Psychiatry, National University Hospital, Reykjavík, Iceland.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: W.B. Saunders 2011
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Hallucinations; Humans; Iceland; Imagination; Incidence; Male; Middle Aged; Parapsychology; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology; Visual Perception
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/120486; https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-440X(94)90282-8

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field Our objective was to analyze the frequency and quality of visions in a general-population sample compared with those experienced among schizophrenics. A sample group from the general population (n = 862) was compared with a group of schizophrenic patients (n = 19). Significant and qualitative differences were found in visions experienced by schizophrenic patients compared with subjects in the population sample. Women were more likely to experience visions of relatives than were men. The general population most commonly experienced visions of people, whereas schizophrenics were more likely to experience other phenomena. A qualitative difference thus exists in the type of visions experienced by schizophrenics compared with visions experienced by subjects from the general public.