DSM-5’s index misleads psychiatrists, other mental health professionals, and the general public about auditory hallucinations (hearing voices)

from November 25, 2015

American Psychiatric Association, in DSM-5, indexes auditory hallucinations as psychosis, but many nonpsychotic people hear voices

DSM-5

If you look up “hallucinations, auditory” in the index of DSM-5 (1, p. 929), all the pages referenced are in the chapter, Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders.

However, DSM-5, itself, in the chapter, Dissociative Disorders [which are not psychoses], contradicts the view that voices are necessarily psychotic: 

“Dissociative identity disorder [aka multiple personality disorder] may be confused with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. The personified, internally communicative inner voices of dissociative identity disorder…may be mistaken for psychotic hallucinations…Persecutory and derogatory internal voices in dissociative identity disorder associated with depressive symptoms may be misdiagnosed as major depression with psychotic features” (1, pp. 296-297).

The General Public

Most successful novelists hear voices (2).

Many normal people in the general public hear voices:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_Voices_Movement

http://www.hearing-voices.org/voices-visions/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-28/hearing-voices-in-your-head-more-common-than-thought-study/6504704

Do any, or perhaps many, of the nonpsychotic people who hear voices have a normal version of dissociative identity (multiple personality)? I think so.

1. American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.

2. Thaisa Frank, Dorothy Wall. Finding Your Writer’s Voice: A Guide to Creative Fiction. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1994.