A Short Note on Pseudo-Hallucinations

Abstract

A recent examination paper for the Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists contained a compulsory question on pseudo-hallucinations. As is proper in a higher examination, the question was difficult, and at least one examiner (the present writer) had no idea what the answer should have been. While it is probably true that an examiner does not need to know a great deal about a question in order to assess a candidate's worth, yet if he is conscientious he will feel that he ought to know something about it. A rapid search through several textbooks proved curiously unhelpful; so this particular examiner awarded marks as best he could, and as soon as time permitted set out to discover what he should have known about pseudo-hallucinations. The present communication reports his findings and reflections. The findings are in no sense an exhaustive enquiry into the subject; they are the outcome of a search through those current textbooks and journals which may be taken to constitute as broad and as authoritative a background of study as can reasonably be expected of an examination candidate faced with a compulsory question.