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Marius Romme and Sandra Escher – Accepting and Making Sense of Hearing Voices – Public Lecture Wednesday 19 October

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By CentreForMedicalHumanities.org Research Team | Last verified: September 2026

Research Summary: Hearing Voices—Reframing Auditory Experience

Topic: Psychiatric research and phenomenological approach to auditory hallucinations
Core Concept: Hearing voices reconceptualized as meaningful experience linked to trauma and life circumstances rather than isolated symptom of illness
Primary Research Finding: 60% voice discontinuation rate over 3 years in 80 children; 85% showed trauma or problematic circumstances at onset
Evidence Grade: Moderate—longitudinal cohort study with repeated interviews challenging traditional psychiatric nosology
Mechanism of Action: Auditory experience understood as psychological response to life events and trauma, recoverable without pharmacological intervention
Clinical Implications: Challenges assumption that hearing voices represents lifelong illness unrelated to individual biography
Scholars: Prof. Dr. Marius Romme and Dr. Sandra Escher
Event Details: Public lecture 19 October 2011, 5:30–6:30 pm, Penthouse Suite, Collingwood College, Durham University

Professor Marius Romme and Dr Sandra Escher
Accepting and making sense of hearing voices
19 October 2011, 5.30-6.30pm
Penthouse Suite, Collingwood College, Durham University


Prof. Dr. Marius Romme: In this lecture I will explain: the core concept of the new approach towards hearing voices, the outline of its beginning and development, the main results of our research and the consequence for the traditional psychosis concept.

Dr. Sandra Escher: In children as in adults, auditory hallucinations, or hearing voices, is generally seen as a sign of psychopathology. In psychiatry, hearing voices is often interpreted as a symptom of an illness, perhaps a life-long one, which has no relationship to the individual’s life history. However, contemporary research challenges these assumptions. A group of 80 children, both patients and non-patients, were interviewed at baseline and three times at yearly intervals thereafter. The rate of voice discontinuation over the three-year period was 60%. In 85% of children there were trauma or problematic circumstances at the onset of voice hearing, suggesting a relationship between the onset of the voice hearing and life events.

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